The Mark of Zorro

Also known as Mark of Zorro

1920 film by Fred Niblo, Theodore Reed

Key facts

Directed by: Fred Niblo
Written by: Douglas Fairbanks Eugene Miller
Based on: The Curse of Capistrano , by Johnston McCulley
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 ( 1920-11-27 )
Running time: 101 minutes

~5 min read

Article

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. Zorro is a character reminiscent of Baroness Orczy's masked hero The Scarlet Pimpernel.

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.