The Mark of Zorro (1920 film)

The Mark of Zorro
The Mark of Zorro
Directed by	Fred Niblo
Written by	Johnston McCulley (story); Eugene Miller (scenario); Douglas Fairbanks (scenario);
Produced by	Douglas Fairbanks
Starring	Douglas Fairbanks; Marguerite De La Motte; Noah Beery; Robert McKim;
Cinematography	William C. McGann; Harris Thorpe;
Edited by	William Nolan
Music by	Mortimer Wilson
Production; company	Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corporation
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	November 27, 1920;
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)
Budget	$169,187.05
Box office	over $500,000

The Mark of Zorro

The Mark of Zorro is a 1920 American silent Western romance film starring Douglas Fairbanks and Noah Beery. This genre-defining swashbuckler adventure was the first movie version of The Mark of Zorro. Based on the 1919 story The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley, which introduced the masked hero, Zorro, the screenplay was adapted by Fairbanks (as "Elton Thomas") and Eugene Miller.

The film was produced by Fairbanks for his own production company, Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corporation, and was the first film released through United Artists, the company formed by Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and D. W. Griffith.

Noah Beery Jr. makes his first of many dozens of screen appearances, portraying a young child. His father began sporadically billing himself as Noah Beery Sr. as a result.

The film has been remade twice, once in 1940 (starring Tyrone Power) and again in 1974 (starring Frank Langella). In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[2]

^ ^a ^b Vance, Jeffrey; Maietta, Tony (2008). Douglas Fairbanks. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-5202-5667-5. The Mark of Zorro was produced at a cost of $169,187.05 and in its initial release grossed over three times that amount domestically; it was Fairbanks' most profitable film up to that time.
^ Mike Barnes (December 16, 2015). "'Ghostbusters,' 'Top Gun,' 'Shawshank' Enter National Film Registry". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 16, 2015.

[FairbanksBook-1] Vance, Jeffrey; Maietta, Tony (2008). Douglas Fairbanks. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-5202-5667-5. The Mark of Zorro was produced at a cost of $169,187.05 and in its initial release grossed over three times that amount domestically; it was Fairbanks' most profitable film up to that time.

[2] Mike Barnes (December 16, 2015). "'Ghostbusters,' 'Top Gun,' 'Shawshank' Enter National Film Registry". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 16, 2015.

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