ZORRO!

I recently began watching the original Zorro TV series. The series was produced by Walt Disney Studios. It ran for three seasons, 1957-1961, with a dashing young Guy Williams starring as the titular masked avenger of old California. The first two seasons are currently streaming on Disney +, and I'm taking advantage of this opportunity to watch them in sequence.

I've seen scattered Zorro episodes before, some in reruns when I was a kid in the early '60s, and some in much-much-later reruns in the '90s. In the latter time frame, The Disney Channel used to program some older properties around Midnight as Disney Late Night Black And White. That package included Zorro.

Westerns weren't really my thing when I was a little kid. So even though I remember watching the occasional Zorro rerun (as well as re-broadcasts of The Lone Ranger and The Cisco Kid), even the superhero elements didn't capture my fancy at the time, not like The Adventures Of Superman and (later) Batman did. I became a Zorro fan in the early '70s, as part of my late adolescent/early teen embrace of cinematic superheroes of the '30s and '40s. That brought me to Tyrone Power in the 1940 remake of The Mark Of Zorro, which became one of my all-time favorite films. I intend to write more about how I became a Zorro fan in some future edition of my blog series The Everlasting First.

After seeing The Mark Of Zorro, I think I may have also seen a Disney Zorro rerun somewhere, and/or an issue of the old Dell Comics licensed comic book adaptation. As a (too-) serious young superhero fan, I dismissed Disney's Zorro as a diluted (and sometimes silly) weakening of the Zorro story. 

I disavow that viewpoint now. Hell, I disavowed it once I saw those shows again on Disney Late Night Black And White in the '90s. I found myself staying up too late on work nights, thrilling to the exploits of the cunning Zorro as he outwitted the hapless Sgt. Garcia. I regretted when The Disney Channel discontinued its Midnight black-and-white programming, and I hoped I'd get another chance to see the series in its entirety.

Now that Disney + has added Zorro to its streaming service, I have an opportunity to start pursuing that goal. And man, this series is a whole lotta fun so far. I'm only about a quarter of the way through the first season's 39 half-hour episodes, but it's been precisely the blast I thought it would be.

Understand: smug li'l early '70s me was correct that Disney's Zorro isn't quite the Tyrone Power Zorro; it's lighter in heart overall, and a bit less violent. But it is so well-done, so aware of what it wants to be, so fulfilling in its sense of high adventure with an underlying playfulness. It's not camp; it takes its derring-do seriously, and doesn't let its humor get in the way.

Guy Williams is perfect in the dual role of the foppish Don Diego de la Vega and his swashbuckling alter ego Zorro, a Clark Kent/Superman duality that Williams nails. He is square-jawed and heroic as the crusading outlaw, and winks (figuratively) at the audience when pretending to be the meek dandy that couldn't possibly be the dynamic Zorro. Diego? ZORRO...? ¡Que ridículo!

The rest of Zorro's cast is likewise solid, particularly Henry Calvin as the oafish Garcia, an inept soldier following the orders of his evil superiors, but (as Zorro himself notes) basically a good-hearted man beneath all of that. In these early episodes, Britt Lomond is appropriately despicable as the antagonist Capitán Monastario. 

Rounding out the regular cast, Gene Sheldon is quite effective as Zorro's mute assistant Bernardo, and George J. Lewis properly exasperating as Diego's padre Don Alejandro de la Vega, disappointed in his son's popinjay ways, and wishing the younger de la Vega could be a courageous man of action like Zorro. Ah, if Don Alejandro only knew!

(And, although a minor role, actress Eugenia Paul is simply stunning as the daughter of a local Don falsely accused of treason and targeted by the diabolical Monastario. I would have developed a childhood crush on Eugenia if I'd watched these shows more attentively when I was a kid.)

You will note the lack of Hispanic names among the cast members. The series is very much of its time; I even spotted an uncredited William Schallert as a San Fernando innkeeper in one episode, an episode which also featured Sebastian Cabot as Judge Vasca. Williams was at least of Italian descent (born Armand Catalano). Its lack of Latin, Mexican, and Native American representation (and absolute absence of black actors) can't be ignored, but we also can't expect a kid's adventure show from the late '50s to transcend the prevailing norms of its period of origin. To its credit, at least Zorro doesn't demonize Mexicans or Indians--who are largely depicted as innocent victims of the Spanish bad guys, and occasional heroes in their own right--even though it's mostly white guys playing those parts.

With that significant asterisk in place, yeah, I am digging Zorro. It's my binge-watch for this summer. I'm bummed that Disney + only has the first two seasons. Season Three consists of four hour-long specials, and I'll try to track those down when I'm done with what's on Disney +.

And it's cool to see the parallels between this masked adventurer and my familiar Dark Knight, the Batman. Zorro also has a secret cave lair, and his faithful steed Tornado serves as an equine equivalent of the Batmobile. Both Zorro and the Shadow were significant influences on writer Bill Finger when he created the details of Batman's story. No wonder I'm a Zorro fan.

Out of the night, when the full moon is bright, comes the horseman known as Zorro. The mark of justice is Z. Ride, Zorro. Ride.

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