The Mark of Zorro (1940 film)

The Mark of Zorro
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rouben Mamoulian
Screenplay by	John Taintor Foote
Story by	Garrett Fort Bess Meredyth
Based on	The Curse of Capistrano 1919 serial story in All-Story Weekly by Johnston McCulley
Produced by	Darryl F. Zanuck
Starring	Tyrone Power Linda Darnell Basil Rathbone
Cinematography	Arthur C. Miller
Edited by	Robert Bischoff
Music by	Alfred Newman
Distributed by	20th Century-Fox
Release date	November 8, 1940 (1940-11-08)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	English Spanish
Budget	$1 million[1]
Box office	$2 million (rentals)[2]

The Mark of Zorro is a 1940 American black-and-white swashbuckling film released by 20th Century-Fox, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, and starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, and Basil Rathbone.

The film is based on the novel The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley, originally published in 1919 in five serialized installments in All-Story Weekly,^[3] which introduced the masked hero Zorro; the story is set in Southern California during the early 19th century.^[4] After the enormous success of the silent 1920 film adaptation, the novel was republished under that name by Grosset & Dunlap. The Mark of Zorro was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

The film was named to the National Film Registry in 2009 by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant", and to be preserved for all time.^[5]