The Mark of Zorro (Special Edition) (Colorized / Black and White)

One of the best swashbuckling films ever made, I bought the b&w dvd when it first came out, then when I saw Fox had released a colorized edition, I decided to give it a chance. I was not disappointed. The colorization is excellent and it is like viewing an entirely new film. I've never really understood the complaints the critics have with colorizing some of these older films. If colorizing meant one could never watch the b&w version again then I'd certainly agree, but all colorizing does is allows you to see some of your favorite movies in a different perspective. And as the new 'Special Edition' includes both versions, what's the problem? Now if they would only release the colorized versions of the great Errol Flynn swashbucklers, and Ronald Colman's 'Prisoner of Zenda', my library would be complete.

I saw this version of Zorro when I was a child and fell in love with it. It is one of my favorites!

For anyone who hasn't seen the handsome and talented Tyrone Power in action yet, this film would be a great place to start getting acquainted with his impressive body of work. I think I like this film more than the original Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. version of the Zorro story, even though there aren't as many action sequences here. Although while Diego doesn't spend all that much time dressed as Zorro and battling with the bad guys, and the film probably could have been made a bit longer to include more such scenes, I still found it to be a charming story, really drawing the viewer in in spite of how Diego/Zorro spends more time talking than swashbuckling. Tyrone Power is great in each of the three roles he takes on--his original character back in Spain, Zorro, and then the foppishly funny persona he takes on as a means of throwing off suspicions about being Zorro. All of the supporting players are wonderful as well, such as Basil Rathbone as the sleazy and ambitious Esteban, Eugene Pallette as the rotund froggy-voiced Fra Felipe, Gail Sondergaard as the scheming Inez, and J. Edward Bromberg as the hated Quintero. In spite of how the film probably could have been made a bit longer and not suffered any, and how there aren't as many action sequences as one would expect from a Zorro movie, it still works and gets everything resolved in the given timeframe. Nowadays such a film would never be limited to just an hour and a half, as is pointed out in the great audio commentary, since the egos of everyone involved would probably take over and it would be stretched out to at least two hours.

As great as this film is, and as nice as the bonus features are (an audio commentary plus an episode of Biography), one has to wonder why it was made into a two-sided disc. Everything that was on Side A is also on Side B, only Side B has them in the original glorious black and white. In addition to double-sided discs being more prone to scratching and damaging, it's just unnecessary to have included a colorised version of this great film. While Tyrone Power did make quite a few films in color, this wasn't one of them. It might have looked great in color, but it works just as well being in black and white. There are many scenes that have the mood set by the black and white color spectrum, like when Zorro is snuffing out the candles in Quintero's study. They're no longer as effective in artificial computerised color. Every time it seems like the issue of colorising classic films is dead and buried once and for all, something like this comes along, and then a small minority of people happily declares that it looks even better in this fake color and that they don't even want to watch the original black and white.

mark of zorro was a very good movie, glad i was able to buy it

Very good colorization of a classic movie. I haven't viewed the Black & White version yet, but it's convienent to have the choice of one disc. Of course, my favorite version of the Zorro legend is George Hamilton's "Zorro, the Gay Blade".