Silent star Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. is still the silver screen’s
ultimate swashbuckling Zorro. Tyrone Powers
ideally embodies the sly subterfuge of a man of iron turning on a dime from foppish languor to finely double-edged banter to masked derring-do. But Guy Williams, hero of Walt Disney’s popular 1950s television series, is the most beloved Zorro of all time.
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D+ |
*½ |
+1-1|
Teens & Up
More precisely, it’s a “funny family action film” in the
Fantastic Four mold — that is, a movie whose key qualification as kid entertainment is that it isn’t good enough for grown‑ups. Too bad. Our kids deserve better. For that matter, so do we.
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A- |
***½ |
+2|
Teens & Up
Thrilling, heartbreaking, witty, romantic, and largely family-friendly,
The Mask of Zorro is possibly the best swashbuckler of its decade, a film at once true to the spirit of the classic period actioners and also thoroughly of its own time.
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A |
**** |
+0|
Kids & Up*
Don Q Son of Zorro, named one of the year’s ten best films by
The New York Times, actually outdoes its predecessor, with a stronger and more sophisticated plot, better pacing, more interesting and complex characterizations, grander production values and set design, and more consistent action.
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A |
**** |
+2|
Kids & Up*
You haven’t seen Zorro until you’ve seen Douglas Fairbanks Sr. as Zorro in the 1920 silent swashbuckling classic.
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A- |
***½ |
+2|
Kids & Up*
Powers can’t match the original Zorro’s astonishing acrobatics and doesn’t try — but the rousing climactic duel against Basil Rathbone’s villainous Captain Esteban, one of the best swordfights ever filmed at that time, almost makes up for it.
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