The Mark of Zorro

The Mark of Zorro is a 1974 American Western television film which stars Frank Langella alongside Gilbert Roland, Yvonne De Carlo, Anne Archer, Ricardo Montalbán and Robert Middleton. It was also a backdoor pilot for a television series on which ABC-TV declined to pick up the option. The film used Alfred Newman's musical score for the 1940 film version along with new incidental music composed by Dominic Frontiere. Plot After receiving a letter from his father (Roland) requesting his immediate return home, Don Diego de la Vega (Langella) resigns his commission as a cadet and sails from Spain to California. Arriving in the Pueblo of Los Angeles, he learns that his father has been replaced as Alcalde by Don Luis Quintero (Middleton). Quintero is a puppet of the witty and urbane swordsman, Captain Esteban (Montalbán), and the once-free populace are oppressed by high taxes and cruel laws. Beatings and imprisonment are common for minor infractions. Diego immediately takes on the persona of a fop to appear ineffectual to the Alcalde and Esteban. His father perceives him as weak and useless, a sacrifice Diego is willing to endure to achieve his goal. Determined to restore freedom, Diego secretly takes one of a pair of ancestral swords and adopts the disguise of the legendary masked hero, El Zorro. His terror campaign against the Alcalde and the Captain eventually rouses the people against them. In his role as the fop, he romances the Alcalde's beautiful niece, Teresa (Archer), whom he grows to love. He simultaneously flirts with the Alcalde's wife, Inez (Sorel), to gain information and make her lover, Esteban, jealous.