(1981) Remember half a century ago Guy Williams as Zorro, based on the character created by Johnston M. McCulley? This humorous twisted tale of twins, offspring of the great swordsman, directed by Peter Medak, takes place half a century after the original's exploits.

In Madrid, Spain, the randy Don Diego Vega (George Hamilton), found in bed with another man's wife, as he's sword fighting with the husband and four others, takes in a letter his mute servant Paco (Donovan Scott) mimes for him from his father, requesting his return to California immediately. Escaping, the dashing and debonair Don Diego suddenly appears on the Pacific golden coast of what still belonged to Spain, greeted by his boyhood chum, Capitan Esteban (Ron Liebman) and his wife Florinda (Brenda Vaccaro), who still adores Diego from their youth. Sadly, Esteban informs Don Diego of senior Seņor Vega's unfortunate death in an accident.

Representing the People's Independence Committee, informing everyone of the recent revolution among the thirteen British colonies on the other left coast, passing out fliers and exhorting the peasants to demand democracy and freedom from oppression, a spirited, fiery Seņorita (though not of Hispanic heritage) Charlotte Taylor Wilson (Lauren Hutton) makes her acquaintance with Don Diego, who comments on her less-than-proletarian preference for staying at an inn and dressing in expensive clothes with perfume.

An old woman delivers a box, hauling it up on her back, containing "Your destiny": Don Diego's father's sword for fighting injustice, black mask for deceiving tyrants, and black hat needing new blocking. Paco, too, has a costume that while supposed to be of a bear reminds others of a pig, a dog, or a beaver.

In his first adventure as Zorro, the masked man overtakes a tax collector and returns the money to a poor peasant and his young daughter, who mistake his sign of a "Z" on their door as the numeral "2." At Capitan Esteban's inauguration ceremony (a masked ball) as the newly elected alcade, Zorro is mistakenly identified as "Zero," dancing with Florinda; Esteban ("I have always counted on people being nicer than me") uses his sword to "cut in" on the couple. Successfully eluding the alcade and his men, Zorro leaps off the balcony but breaks his foot.

Back home, unable to put a stop to the reign of terror and increased taxes, Don Diego complains of his having missed "my destiny by a foot." Yet just as things get grim, Seņor Vega's other son, Ramon, on leave from his service with the British navy (with "a really bad accent" like a sissy boy) agrees to become Zorro temporarily, but insists on using a whip and flamboyant fashions in place of his predecessors' preference for classic, basic black.

When Charlotte throws herself at Zorro, offering to do "anything" for him, Ramon suggests they go shopping together. With another masked ball intended to lure Zorro into a trap - Florinda as bait wearing an expensive necklace - Esteban's plan is foiled when many guests arrive in Zorro costumes, including Don Diego, who brings along his big blond cousin, Margarita "Bunny" Wigglesworth, of whom Esteban says: "Your cousin is not a woman. She's a goddess!"

It's two for one and one for two, a doubly entertaining flick.

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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