New York State Writers Institute - Classic Film Series

The Mark of Zorro

THE MARK OF ZORRO

October 24, 2003 (Friday) at 7:30 p.m.
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue
(Free and Open to the Public)

(Unitd States, 1920, 90 minutes, b&w, 16mm, silent)

Directed by Fred Niblo
Starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Marguerite De La Motte
and Noah Beery

Live Piano Accompaniment Provided by Mike Schiffer

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Based on a 1919 serial in All-Story Weekly, a pulp fiction magazine, THE MARK OF ZORRO is regarded as the true grandfather of the action hero genre. In Old California in the 1830s, a masked avenger champions the rights of the common folk against a corrupt Mexican colonial administration. A blockbuster in its day, the film broke all previous box office records and transformed the 44-year-old Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.--in his very first swashbuckling role--into a superstar.