Zorro, The Gay Blade

Last updated
Zorro, The Gay Blade
Zorro the gay blade.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Peter Medak
Written by
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography John A. Alonzo
Edited byLori Jane Coleman
Music by Ian Fraser
Production
companies
Melvin Simon Productions
Estudios Churubusco Azteca S.A.
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • July 17, 1981 (1981-07-17)
Running time
93 minutes
CountriesUnited States
Mexico
LanguageEnglish
Budget$12.6 million [1]
Box office$5.1 million (US/Canada) [2]

Zorro, The Gay Blade is a 1981 American swashbuckling comedy film from 20th Century Fox, produced by C.O. Erickson and George Hamilton, directed by Peter Medak, that stars Hamilton, Lauren Hutton, Ron Leibman, and Brenda Vaccaro.

Contents

The film's opening prologue states: "This film is dedicated to Rouben Mamoulian and the other great filmmakers whose past gives us our future".

The prologue quickly establishes that Zorro, The Gay Blade is a tongue-in-cheek sequel to 20th Century Fox's swashbuckling adventure film The Mark of Zorro (1940), directed by Mamoulian.

Hamilton was nominated for a Golden Globe award for playing the dual role of Don Diego de la Vega (Zorro) and his gay twin brother Bunny Wigglesworth, aka Ramón de la Vega.

Plot

In 1840s Madrid, Spain, Don Diego de la Vega is in bed with a married woman. They are caught by her husband, Garcia, and Diego must sword fight with him and his five brothers. During the altercation, Diego's mute servant Paco reads (via gestures) a letter from Diego's father ordering Diego's return to California. Diego and Paco jump from a high wall into a waiting carriage.

When the two arrive in Los Angeles months later, they are met by Diego's childhood friend Esteban, who is now capitán of the guard. He has married Florinda, for whom the men competed when they were boys. Diego learns that his father was killed in a riding accident, his horse "frightened by a turtle". Esteban is the acting alcalde until the Dons elect a replacement.

Esteban is elected by acclamation and then gives a speech to the assembled peasants. He is interrupted by Charlotte Taylor-Wilson, a wealthy political activist from Boston. She and Diego meet, and despite their political differences, Diego is smitten.

Diego is invited to a masked ball celebrating Esteban's elevation. He also receives his inheritance: Zorro's black cape, hat, and sword, along with a letter from his late father revealing that he was Zorro. That legacy now falls to Diego. He decides the masked ball is the perfect place to announce Zorro's return. On his way there, Zorro witnesses a peasant being extorted. He confronts and defeats Esteban's tax collector, then instructs the peasant to spread the word that El Zorro has returned.

Diego, in Zorro costume, dances with Florinda at the ball. Velasquez, the tax collector, reports the theft to Esteban, pointing to Diego as Zorro. A duel ensues with Esteban, and Zorro escapes by again jumping from a high wall, but this time injuring his foot and hobbling away.

Later that night, a drunken Florinda attempts to seduce Diego at his hacienda, but Esteban arrives to speak about the evening's events. He suspects that Diego might be Zorro, but Diego convinces him that his foot is uninjured.

A reign of terror begins, including torture and increased taxation. Diego is frustrated because, being injured, he cannot fight Esteban's tyranny. Fate intervenes when Diego's gay, foppish, and British-educated twin brother Ramón de la Vega, a Royal Navy officer having adopted the name "Bunny Wigglesworth", comes home for a visit. Diego brings him up to date, and Bunny assumes the guise of Zorro, using a whip instead of a sword, while wearing flamboyant Zorro attire in a variety of coordinated colors.

The colorful Zorro always eludes capture. Esteban hatches a plan to lure Zorro to the alcalde's residence with another ball to show off Florinda's expensive new necklace. Seeing through the plan, Diego arrives dressed as Zorro. So do the rest of the Dons and male party guests, saying that a message from Esteban instructed them all to dress that way. Adding to the confusion, Bunny appears in drag, masquerading as "Margarita" Wigglesworth, Diego's cousin from Santa Barbara. Esteban is smitten upon meeting her. Bunny spills a drink on Florinda, and in the resulting chaos attempts to clean her dress, and makes off with the necklace. As Bunny leaves to return to the Royal Navy, he tells Diego that Charlotte Taylor-Wilson has confessed her love for Zorro.

At the plaza, Diego (as Zorro) and Charlotte meet again, falling into each other's arms, but they are observed and Esteban is informed. As a ruse to lure Zorro, he has Charlotte arrested, and she is sentenced to be executed. Don Diego as Zorro surrenders to Esteban to save her, and he is sentenced to death.

Seconds before the firing squad opens fire, Bunny, this time wearing a bright metallic gold costume, announces the return of Zorro with a rhyme, "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a peso. All for Zorro, stand up and say so!" With Charlotte's and Diego's aid, Zorro incites the assembled peasants to rebellion. Esteban's guards also rebel, joined by Florinda, and Esteban stands alone, defeated. Later, Bunny finally rides off to catch his ship back to Britain, waving goodbye, after which Diego and Charlotte ride off to plan their wedding. As her wedding gift, Charlotte suggests that Diego donate all his family lands to the people, so they can settle down and raise a family in Boston.

Cast

Development

The film began life as a screenplay by future screenwriter and teacher David Trottier, titled Zorro, the Comedy Adventure. Trottier had little involvement with the finished film, barring some minor additions, so was not credited. [4]

Film score

The opening credits read: ”Music conducted and adapted by Ian Fraser” and the end credits: “Music adapted from Adventures of Don Juan (1948) by Max Steiner [and] Danzes Fantastica by Joaquín Turina”.

Critical reception

Vincent Canby gave a mostly positive review in The New York Times , praising many of the performances in particular. "[George Hamilton] has energy and extreme good will. He also has surrounded himself with some very attractive and funny actors, particularly Mr. Leibman, Brenda Vaccaro, as the alcalde's sex-hungry wife, and beautiful Lauren Hutton". [5]

The film holds a rating of 50% on Rotten Tomatoes from 16 reviews. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zorro</span> Fictional character

Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante that defends the commoners and Indigenous peoples of California against corrupt and tyrannical officials and other villains. His signature all-black costume includes a cape, a hat known as a sombrero cordobés, and a mask covering the upper half of his face.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Hamilton (actor)</span> American actor

George Stevens Hamilton is an American actor. His notable films include Home from the Hill (1960), Where the Boys Are (1960), Angel Baby (1961), By Love Possessed (1961), A Thunder of Drums (1961), Light in the Piazza (1962), Two Weeks in Another Town (1962), The Victors (1963), Looking for Love (1964), Your Cheatin' Heart (1964), Viva Maria! (1965), Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! (1967), Jack of Diamonds (1967), The Power (1968), Evel Knievel (1971), The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), Once Is Not Enough (1975), Love at First Bite (1979), Zorro, The Gay Blade (1981), The Godfather Part III (1990), Doc Hollywood (1991), Once Upon a Crime (1992), 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997), Hollywood Ending (2002), and The Congressman (2016). For his debut performance in Crime and Punishment U.S.A. (1959), Hamilton won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a BAFTA Award. He has received one additional BAFTA nomination and two Golden Globe nominations.

<i>The Mask of Zorro</i> 1998 swashbuckler film by Martin Campbell

The Mask of Zorro is a 1998 American swashbuckler film based on the fictional character Zorro by Johnston McCulley. It was directed by Martin Campbell and stars Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Stuart Wilson. The film features the original Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega (Hopkins), escaping from prison to find his long-lost daughter (Zeta-Jones) and avenge the death of his wife at the hands of the corrupt governor Rafael Montero (Wilson). He is aided by his successor (Banderas), who is pursuing his own vendetta against the governor's right-hand man while falling in love with de la Vega's daughter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Leibman</span> American actor (1937–2019)

Ron Leibman was an American actor. He won both the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play in 1993 for his performance as Roy Cohn in Angels in America. Leibman also won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1979 for his role as Martin 'Kaz' Kazinsky in his short-lived crime drama series Kaz.

<i>The Mark of Zorro</i> (1940 film) 1940 film by Rouben Mamoulian

The Mark of Zorro is a 1940 American black-and-white swashbuckling film released by 20th Century-Fox, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, and starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, and Basil Rathbone. The supporting cast features Eugene Pallette, Gale Sondergaard, and Robert Lowery. The film is based on the novel The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley, originally published in 1919 in five serialized installments in All-Story Weekly, which introduced the masked hero Zorro; the story is set in Southern California during the early 19th century. After the enormous success of the silent 1920 film adaptation, the novel was republished under that name by Grosset & Dunlap. The Mark of Zorro was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score. The film was named to the National Film Registry in 2009 by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant", and to be preserved for all time.

<i>The Mark of Zorro</i> (1920 film) 1920 film

The Mark of Zorro is a 1920 American silent Western romance film starring Douglas Fairbanks and Noah Beery. This genre-defining swashbuckler adventure was the first movie version of The Mark of Zorro. Based on the 1919 story The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley, which introduced the masked hero, Zorro, the screenplay was adapted by Fairbanks and Eugene Miller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brenda Vaccaro</span> American actress (born 1939)

Brenda Buell Vaccaro is an American stage, film, and television actress. In a career spanning over half a century, she received one Academy Award nomination, three Golden Globe Award nominations, four Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and three Tony Award nominations.

<i>Zorro</i> (1957 TV series) American action-adventure western drama series

Zorro is an American action-adventure Western television series produced by Walt Disney Productions and starring Guy Williams. Based on the Zorro character created by Johnston McCulley in his 1919 novella, the series premiered on October 10, 1957, on ABC. The final network broadcast was July 2, 1959. Seventy-eight episodes were produced, and four hour-long specials were aired on the Walt Disney anthology series between October 30, 1960, and April 2, 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Diamond (actor)</span> English actor

Peter Diamond was an English actor who had trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and is remembered as a stuntman on television or film.

<i>Zorro</i> (novel)

Zorro is a 2005 novel by Chilean author Isabel Allende. Its subject is the American pulp hero Diego de la Vega, better known as El Zorro. He first appeared as a character in Johnston McCulley's novella The Curse of Capistrano (1919). His character and adventures have also been adapted for an American TV series, other books, and cartoon series.

<i>The Mark of Zorro</i> (1974 film) 1974 TV film

The Mark of Zorro is a 1974 American Western television film which stars Frank Langella alongside Gilbert Roland, Yvonne De Carlo, Anne Archer, Ricardo Montalbán and Robert Middleton.

<i>The Curse of Capistrano</i> 1919 novel by Johnston McCulley

The Curse of Capistrano is a 1919 novel by Johnston McCulley and the first work to feature the Californio character Diego Vega, the masked hero also called Zorro. It first appeared as a five-part magazine serial. The story was adapted into the silent film The Mark of Zorro in 1920. It appeared in book form in 1924, also using the title The Mark of Zorro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eduardo Noriega (Mexican actor)</span> Mexican actor (1916–2007)

Eduardo Noriega was a Mexican film actor who appeared in over 100 films, mainly Mexican.

<i>The Legend of Zorro</i> (anime series) Italian-Japanese anime television series

The Legend of Zorro is an Italian-Japanese anime, based on the western character Zorro. The series was initially broadcast in Italy in 1994 before being broadcast in Japan two years later, albeit with some episodes skipped.

<i>Zorro Rides Again</i> 1937 film by John English, William Witney

Zorro Rides Again (1937) is a 12-chapter Republic Pictures film serial. It was the eighth of the sixty-six Republic serials, the third with a Western theme and the last produced in 1937. The serial was directed by William Witney & John English in their first collaboration. The serial starred John Carroll who also sang the title song as a modern descendant of the original Zorro with Carroll stunt doubled by Yakima Canutt. The plot is a fairly standard western storyline about a villain attempting to illicitly take valuable land. The setting is a hybrid of modern (1930s) and western elements that was used occasionally in B-Westerns. It was also the first in a series of five Zorro serials, followed by Zorro's Fighting Legion (1939), Zorro's Black Whip (1944), Son of Zorro (1947) and Ghost of Zorro (1949).

<i>El Zorro, la espada y la rosa</i> Television series

El Zorro, la espada y la rosa is a Spanish-language telenovela based on Johnston McCulley's characters. Telemundo aired it from February 12 to July 23, 2007. This limited-run serial shows the masked crusader as a hero torn between his fight for justice and his love for a beautiful woman. Telemundo president Don Browne called this show "without doubt the best production offered on Hispanic television in the United States today."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George J. Lewis</span> Mexican actor (1903–95)

George J. Lewis was a Mexican-born actor who appeared in many films and eventually TV series from the 1920s through the 1960s, usually specializing in westerns. He is probably best known for playing Don Alejandro de la Vega, who was Don Diego de la Vega's father in the 1950s Disney television series Zorro. Lewis co-starred in Zorro's Black Whip and had a minor role in Ghost of Zorro before starring as Don Alejandro in the Disney series.

<i>Zorro</i> (1990 TV series) American TV series or program

Zorro is an American Western superhero television series featuring Duncan Regehr as the character of Zorro. Regehr portrayed the fearless Spanish hero and fencer on The Family Channel from 1990 to 1993. The series was shot entirely in Madrid, Spain and produced by New World Television (U.S.), The Family Channel (U.S.), Ellipse Programme of Canal Plus (France), Beta TV (Germany), and RAI (Italy). 88 episodes of the series were produced, Raymond Austin directed 55 episodes and produced 37. There were 10 more episodes made than the first Zorro television series, which was produced by Disney in the late 1950s.

<i>Zorro: Generation Z</i> Animated series

Zorro: Generation Z is a British-German animated series that began in 2006. Former Marvel Studios development executive Rick Ungar developed the original series in association with BKN International, BKN New Media, G7 Animation, and Pangea Corporation. The programming deal and concept for the new series was developed by Ungar, G7, and Pangea and underwritten partially by a master toy license with Brazilian toy company, Gulliver Toys. What made the show unique were the plethora of Pangea-designed high tech gadgets and the conceit of having the young Zorro ride his motorcycle named after his horse, Tornado.

<i>The Bold Caballero</i> 1936 film by Wells Root

The Bold Caballero is a 1936 American Western film written and directed by Wells Root. It is based on the character Zorro, created by Johnston McCulley. The characters Don Alejandro Vega and Bernardo are notably absent. Native American stars include Chief Thundercloud as Don Diego Vega/Zorro's aide and Charles Stevens as Captain Vargas. John Merton appears uncredited in this film as a First Sergeant. Merton also appears in Zorro's Fighting Legion as Manuel and Zorro's Black Whip as Harris. The film is notable for being the first talking Zorro film, as the first two Zorro films were silent films, and the first Zorro film in color (Magnacolor). It was shot in Chatsworth, Los Angeles. The film was released on December 1, 1936, by Republic Pictures.

References

  1. ↑ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p259
  2. ↑ Solomon p 235. Figures are rentals not total gross.
  3. ↑ Sharbutt, Jay (April 1, 1990). "Masked Zorro Returns Friday to Make His Mark on Cable TV". Los Angeles Times . Associated Press . Retrieved 2010-11-06.
  4. ↑ "How the Writers Store Changed My Life". Script Magazine. 9 May 2012.
  5. ↑ "Zorro The Gay Blade (1981): George Hamilton, Comic Zorro" Vincent Canby, The New York Times , July 24, 1981. Accessed January 11, 2013.
  6. ↑ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zorro_the_gay_blade
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.