In 1969 Italy was obsessed with 'Zorros'. The previous year, 1968, had seen George Ardisson in "Zorro the Fox" (11/17/68) and Dean Reed in the Franco & Ciccio outing "The Nephews of Zorro" (12/12/68), as the masked hero. Producers, sensing a gold mine, rushed six films towards production. Tulio Bruschi at Duca International made three in a row. He started with "Zorro's Latest Adventure" aka "Zorro il Dominatore" (12/12/69, It), then "Zorro, the Rider of Revenge" aka "Zorro il Cavaliere della Vendetta" (04/09/71, It), and lastly "Zorro the Invincible" aka "Zorro la Maschera della Vendetta" (07/29/71 Sp and 10/02/71, It). All starring Spaniard Charles Quiney.
Producers
Ermanno Donati & Luigi Carpentieri ("Hills Run Red" and
"Navajo Joe", both 1966), tried to interest US actor Brett Halsey
(briefly then known as 'Montgomery Ford') into topping their remake of the
Douglas Fairbanks (1920, 06/1920, It) / Tyrone Power (1940, 05/50, It),
"Mark of Zorro" (08/27/69, It). Halsey had starred as Benvenuto
Cellini in their historical drama "The Burning of Rome" aka "The
Magnificent Adventure" (08/03/63). He must have turned the film down and
their 'Zorro' went unmade.
At the same time Fabio Testi masked up under the name 'Martin Moore' for Italian International Film's "El Zorro Justiciero" / "...E continuavano a chiamarlo figlio di..." (filmed in 1969, for 02/21/72, Sp and 06/72, It).
Others, not wanting to spend the time making their own 'Zorro' movies, searched for already completed ones. The then present owners of Atlantis Films of Italia found the feature length Italian dubbed cutdown of the Republic Pictures b&w serial "Zorro's Fighting Legion" (03/46, It). They dusted it off and reissued it (sans company name), still under its original Italian title 'Zorro" (11/13/69, It), just ahead of all the others. They even had the poster redone with a more modern look and beat them all to the box office. Not wanting to be out done, Fox sent their masterfull b&w Tyrone Power version of "The Mark of Zorro" (1940, back into service, to try to make some money out of it (07/18/72, It)
The latter two Quiney 'Zorros' were finally released, spread out, over the next year or so to lesser effect.
It would be fifty years till the Zorro rush came again. Secuoya TV made "Zorro", starring Spaniard Miguel Bernardeau (2024, Sp), and Paramount Plus / France TV’s “Zorro" (2024, Fr), starring French superstar Jean Dujardin, separately. Both minis were shot in Spain. At the same time, both Disney and Robert Rodriquez announced their own 'resurrections' of their previous 'Zorros'. And talked and talked.
Ten years
earlier, Quentin Tarantino had hoped to make his 'Django/Zorro' mashup and then
settled for a graphic comic book version. While all the other 'Zorros' were
coming and going around him, Tarantino was still talking about making his
feature film 'Zorro', well into the latter half of the decade.
None of them
have yet to ride into the night.
By Michael Ferguson
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