With the success of The Adventures of Robin Hood two years earlier, 20th Century Fox tried its hand at a classic adventure character. The 1940 version of The Mark of Zorro is a great remake and is comparably enjoyable to The Adventures of Robin Hood. If only it had been like wise filmed in color, it would have survived better as a classic.

Tyrone Power does a great Zorro. His dashing dark looks enable him to play Diego Vega convincingly as an upper class Spaniard going to school in Spain. Upon his arrival home in southern California, he learns that his father is no longer the Alcalde (leader of the community), and that the people are all being oppressed by the new Alcalde.

In what causes some very humorous scenes, Diego pretends to be gay so as to throw off anyone thinking that he is Zorro. Okay, they never use the word "gay", but in one scene he so fairies it up that Eugene Pallett looks at Power and says he has turned "into a puppy." You get the drift very easily.

Diego disguises himself as Zorro and goes about robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, all while doing battle with the new Alcalde's soldiers. He evens find time to romance the Alcalde's niece, Linda Darnell.

This movie is fast actioned and filled with fighting. But let's face it, it is practically a remake of Errol Flynn's The Adventures of Robin Hood. The plots are amazingly similar. Basil Rathbone and Eugene Pallett play the exact same roles except they try for Spanish accents instead of English. The big difference between the two movies, and it is what separates them, are the charms and talents of the two leads.

Flynn plays Robin Hood as a happy go lucky outlaw who only gets serious when he absolutely has to. Tyrone Power plays Zorro as a straight out action hero, but shines when playing Diego. Early in the movie it is made clear that Diego is a lady-killer. Thus we realize that when he acts gay, it is in fact acting. In one scene, Rathbone looks on in disgust as Diego and the Alcalde's wife are discussing fragrances and clothing materials. It is these scenes that separate the two performances.

The two films are so much the same, yet different. The Mark of Zorro is a great film in its own right. Tyrone Power could be called the American Errol Flynn, but that would belittle his performance. Sure the studio was following a formula with this movie, but thanks to Power's charm and acting, it stands by itself. And just in case anyone is wondering, my son's like this movie just as much as The Adventures of Robin Hood.

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