The Mark of Zorro (1920 film)

right|thumb|250px|Out of the mystery of the unknown - appeared a masked rider who rode up and down the great highway The Mark of Zorro is a 1920 film about a seemingly idiotic fop who is really the courageous vigilante Zorro, who seeks to protect the oppressed. Directed by Fred Niblo and Theodore Reed. Written by Eugene Miller and Douglas Fairbanks, based on the 1919 story "The Curse of Capistrano" by Johnston McCulley. Zorro [passionately wooing Lolita] If this could be - The high Sierras I would level to your feet - The wild waves on Capistrano's shore should pay you homage - I'd make the desert a million roses yield - - to die in shame before your beauty- If this could be! I give you a safe rule, good landlady. Never do anything on an empty stomach - but eat! Justice for all! Punishment for the oppressors of the helpless - from the governor down. Oh, such lips! Turn not away. Your face is heaven - all else is blackness! You idlers! You wasters! You fashion-plates! You sit and sip your wine while the naked back of an unprotesting soldier of Christ is lashed with the whip! The heaven-kissed hills of your native California swarm with the sentinels of oppression! Are your pulses dead? Thank God, mine is not - and I pledge you my blood's as noble as the best! No force that tyranny could bring would dare oppose us - once united. Our country's out of joint. It is for us caballeros, and us alone, to set it right! Sgt. Pedro Gonzales It's a good thing for that carver of Z's that he keeps out of reach of my sword. I'll carve Gonzales all over his body. Other Title Card: Oppression - by its very nature - creates the power that crushes it. A champion arises - a champion of the oppressed - whether it be a Cromwell or someone unrecorded, he will be there. He is born. Title Card: Out of the mystery of the unknown - appeared a masked rider who rode up and down the great highway.. Soldier: This Zorro comes upon you like a graveyard ghost and like a ghost he disappears. Dialogue Zorro: I have a servant - a wonder at the guitar. Tonight I shall order him to come out and play beneath your window. Lolita Pulido: I have a maid - passionately fond of music! Lolita Pulido: Why do wear a mask? Zorro: Perhaps to hide the features of a De Bergerac. Zorro: Once, in a garden I saw a beautiful rose - I sought to pluck it - quickly. It stung me - Then - - slowly - - cautiously - I reached for it - - and the rose was mine! Lolita Pulido: Indeed! Then I'm but another rose? Zorro: An, no señorita. You are too wonderful! I dare not even hope. Lolita Pulido: Your swordsmanship? Where did you learn the blade? Zorro: In Spain, señorita, where there are no eyes like yours. Sgt. Pedro Gonzales: We seek the vulture, Zorro! Don Diego Vega: You're too fat, Gonzales. Poison the mountain tops and set your traps in the clouds - perhaps you'll have better luck. Lolita Pulido: I - give you - freely - the kiss he would have taken. [kisses Zorro] I fear for your safety, señor. Zorro: Fear not - their wits are as slow as their blades. The weapons you use pierce deep, señorita. Zorro: You trust me, Señorita? Lolita Pulido: To love is to trust, señor. Cast Douglas Fairbanks - Don Diego Vega/Señor Zorro Marguerite De La Motte - Lolita Pulido Noah Beery, Sr. - Sergeant Pedro Gonzales Charles Hill Mailes - Don Carlos Pulido Claire McDowell - Doña Catalina Pulido Robert McKim - Captain Juan Ramon George Periolat - Governor Alvarado Walt Whitman - Father Felipe Sidney De Gray - Don Alejandro Vega Tote Du Crow - Bernardo, Don Diego's mute servant Noah Beery, Jr. - Boy Charles Stevens - Peon beaten by Sergeant Gonzales External links 0011439 The Mark of Zorro 1013380-mark_of_zorro The Mark of Zorro 31497 The Mark of Zorro Category:Films based on short fiction Category:Silent films Category:Zorro films Category:United States National Film Registry films Category:Films set in California Category:1920 American films Category:American vigilante films Category:Films directed by Fred Niblo Category:Films set in the 1840s