First Monday Silent Film Series: The Mark of Zorro (1920)

Come listen to renowned silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis as he thrills with the swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks. This is the first ever movie version of the western romance. In 2015 the US library of Congress preserved the film on the National Film Registry.

Douglas Fairbanks impersonates a wealthy young Spanish noble who, in his proper person, is an indolent imbecile, the despair of his father and of his charming sweetheart. When he sallies forth a masked black figure on a black horse, the terrible Zorro, he rescues the oppressed and leaves “The Mark of Zorro,” a “Z” made with his rapier, on the oppressor of the weak.

CAST: Douglas Fairbanks, Noah Beery, Charles Hill Mailes, Claire McDowell, Marguerite De La Motte, Robert McKim

DIRECTOR: Fred Niblo

RUN TIME: 90 min