Under the sign of Zorro
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Under the sign of Zorro |
| Original title | The Mark of Zorro |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1940 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Rouben Mamoulian |
| script |
John Taintor Foote , Garrett Fort , Bess Meredyth |
| production |
Darryl F. Zanuck , Raymond Griffith |
| music |
Alfred Newman , David Buttolph , Hugo Friedhofer , Cyril J. Mockridge |
| camera | Arthur C. Miller |
| cut | Robert Bischoff |
| occupation | |
| |
In the sign of Zorro (Original title: The Mark of Zorro ) is an American coat-and-sword film from 1940 with Tyrone Power as Zorro . The novel Der Fluch von Capistrano ( The Curse of Capistrano , 1919) by Johnston McCulley served as a literary model .
action
At the beginning of the 19th century, Diego Vega, who was in Spain , was summoned by his father, Don Alejandro Vega, to his native California , where the people were bullied by Don Luis Quintero and his soldiers. The soldiers are led by Captain Esteban Pasquale, who enforces Quintero's plans with all his might. When Don Diego witnesses the grievances, he decides to disguise himself as a masked bandit named Zorro at night and to stand up for the rights of the farmers. At the respective crime scene he leaves the letter “Z” as his signature. During the day he appears as a vain nobleman to disguise himself and flirts with Quintero's conceited wife Inez, although he actually fell in love with Quintero's beautiful niece Lolita. By consciously turning to Inez and raving about Madrid to get her to move to Spain with her power-hungry husband, he incurs the anger of Captain Pasquale, who also makes advances to Inez.
When Zorro asks Quintero to travel to Spain and to appoint Don Alejandro as his successor for the office of California governor , Captain Pasquale instead suggests joining the Vega family with Quintero's by marrying Diego and Lolita. Lolita is initially outraged by the suggestion, as Diego seems too affected and inflated. However, when she learns that he is Zorro, she changes her mind. Thereupon Diego's accomplice, Brother Felipe, is arrested by Captain Pasquale and forced to reveal the true identity of Zorro to him. This is followed by a duel between Diego and Captain Pasquale, who ultimately dies due to Diego's sword.
Quintero has become suspicious and therefore has Diego arrested and sentenced to death. However, Diego succeeds in breaking out of prison and calling on the peasants to rebellion against Quintero's soldiers. After these have been beaten and overwhelmed, Don Alejandro Quintero takes over the position and continually ensures peace in the region, while his son Diego starts a happy life with Lolita.
background
Under the Sign of Zorro , the remake of the silent film The Sign of Zorro (1920), with which Douglas Fairbanks once made John McCulley's fictional character of Zorro (in English: "Fox") famous. Twenty years later, 20th Century Fox let Tyrone Power slip into the role of Zorro.
The shooting took place from July 25 to September 12, 1940. The duel between Power and Basil Rathbone is considered one of the best in film history. Rathbone, who had already fought legendary duels with Errol Flynn in Unter Piratenflagge (1935) and Robin Hood, King of the Vagabonds (1938), suffered two cuts on his forehead while filming with power. Power, however, was doubled in some shots.
The film premiered on November 1, 1940 in Cincinnati , Ohio, and was released a week later in US theaters. In Germany it started on July 12, 1949. It was released on DVD in 2005.
Reviews
For the lexicon of international films , Imzeichen des Zorro was a “lively, romantic adventure film”, the “American Robin Hood version”, in addition to “coat-and-sword escapades”, also “with elegance, optical delicacy and a much-praised film music ". The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung found that director Rouben Mamoulian had staged a film "in which the action is never an end in itself, but a compulsion that arises from the circumstances". The result was also a film "that masters all the tricks of the genre and yet at the same time transcends the boundaries of the genre".
According to Craig Butler of the All Movie Guide , The Sign of Zorro is "one of the best coat and sword adventures ever filmed." The film has “a healthy dose of romance” and is “more than just a little bit of comedy”. Leading actor Tyrone Power, “who was clearly born for the title role”, did “everything right”: “Charisma, bravery, affectation, longing - everything is in the right proportions.” Basil Rathbone is also “in top form” and With his "elegance and cold-bloodedness, he embodies the kind of villain that the audience loves to hate". Variety said that the "Degenduell between Power and Rathbone, which lasts about two minutes, [...] is a dramatic highlight".
Awards
At the Academy Awards in 1941 , the film was nominated for an Oscar in the category of best film music . However, composer Alfred Newman lost to Leigh Harline , Paul J. Smith and Ned Washington , who won the award for their music in Disney's Pinocchio . In 2009, The Sign of Zorro was inducted into the National Film Registry .
German version
The German dubbed version was created in 1949 by the Motion Picture Export Association. The dubbing was directed by Josef Wolf based on the dialogue book by Kurt Hinz .
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Don Diego Vega / Zorro | Tyrone Power | Hans Nielsen |
| Lolita Quintero | Linda Darnell | Erika Georgi |
| Captain Esteban Pasquale | Basil Rathbone | Ernst Fritz Fürbringer |
| Inez Quintero | Gale Sondergaard | Ilse Werner |
| Brother Felipe | Eugene Pallette | Rudolf Reiff |
| Don Luis Quintero | J. Edward Bromberg | Otto Wernicke |
| Don Alejandro Vega | Montagu Love | Walter Holten |
| Senora Isabella Vega | Janet Beecher | Edith Schultze-Westrum |
| Rodrigo | Robert Lowery | Ernst von Klipstein |
| host | Frank Puglia | Bum Kruger |
| Don Miguel | Pedro de Cordoba | Wolfgang Eichberger |
Further film adaptations of the novel
- 1920: Daszeichen des Zorro ( The Mark of Zorro ) - USA - Director: Fred Niblo - with Douglas Fairbanks
- 1998: The Mask of Zorro ( The Mask of Zorro ) - USA / Mexico - Director: Martin Campbell - with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones
- 2005: Die Legende des Zorro ( The Legend of Zorro ) - USA - Director: Martin Campbell - with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones
Web links
- The Mark of Zorro at the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Mark of Zorro at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- The Mark of Zorro at Turner Classic Movies (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael B. Druxman: Basil Rathbone: His Life and His Films . Barnes, 1976, p. 243.
- ↑ cf. Jay Steinberg on tcm.com
- ↑ In the sign of Zorro. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Jürgen Müller: Films of the 30s . Taschen, 2006, p. 520.
- ↑ “ The Mark of Zorro […] is one of the finest costume adventure stories ever filmed, one that's laced with a healthy dollop of romance and more than a smidgen of comedy. [...] Tyrone Power, who was clearly born to play the role, gets it all right - the charisma, the courage, the foppishness, the desire - it's all there in all the right proportions. [...] Rathbone is in absolutely superlative form, all elegance and ice, the kind of villain that audiences truly love to hate. " Craig Butler, cf. omovie.com
- ↑ "Sword duel between Power and Rathbone, running about two minutes, is a dramatic highlight." See The Mark of Zorro . In: Variety , November 6, 1940.
- ↑ cf. synchrondatenbank.de