The Mark of Zorro (1920 film)

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