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Vintage 8x10 in. US single-weight glossy copy photograph (not a vintage original photo printed at the time it was taken) from the classic 1920's silent film western drama/romance, THE MARK OF ZORRO, released in 1920 by United Artists and directed by Fred Niblo. Based upon the story, "The Curse of Capistrano," by Johnston McCulley from the "All-Story Weekly," a seemingly idiotic fop (Douglas Fairbanks) is really the courageous vigilante
Zorro, who seeks to protect the oppressed.
The image features an exterior long shot in front of the luxurious Spanish-style home of the foppish Don Diego Vega (Douglas Fairbanks) as he meekly holds his hat while talking to Don Carlos Pulido (Charles Hill Mailes), the father of the beautiful Lolita (Marguerite De La Motte, left), as Doña Catalina Pulido (Claire McDowell) watches the younger man with some disgust at his lack of manliness. The older couple want their daughter to marry Vega for his money, but she has no interest whatsoever in this seemingly spineless man. Printed on single-weight stock with a glossy finish, it is in fine condition with light horizontal scuffs across various portions of the image that are visible when viewing the photo at an angle and one pinhole in the center of the top border.
Douglas Fairbanks was looking to try something new from the normal boy-meets-girl romance movies he had been making for the previous few years. This is when the actor came across the story of Zorro--originally published in the magazine, "All-Story Weekly." Previous to Fairbanks' portrayal, practically nobody had ever heard of the Robin Hood-like hero, Zorro. The working title of this film was, The Curse of Capistrano. While one contemporary source credits Eugene Miller with the adaptation, modern sources credit Elton Thomas, which was Douglas Fairbanks' pseudonym. McCulley's story was published in book form under the title, The Mark of Zorro, in 1924. Some scenes in the film were shot in the San Fernando Valley in California, where a set representing Los Angeles during the period of 1840 was built. M. Harry Uttenhover of Belgium, a three-time world's champion fencer, was hired to instruct cast members Noah Beery and Robert McKim. The Mark of Zorro marked the first film of Noah Beery, Jr. (1915--1994), son of long-time character actor Noah Beery. Berry, Jr. also had a long career in film and television. In the Golden Age of Comic Books, this was the film to which Thomas and Martha Wayne took their young son Bruce on the night that they were murdered in front of him in Gotham City in 1920, the experience which led him to become Batman. |