Director Richard Blasco's Spanish lensed swashbuckler "The Three Swords of Zorro" isn't as execrable as some people argue. Indeed, the glossy Anthony Hopkins & Antonio Banderas "Mask of Zorro" looks like it might have drawn some of its ideas and gags from Blasco's "Zorro." For example, the Mexican governor imprisons Zorro, an older man earlier on in the film, and later a younger man, Diego (Guy Stockwell of "Tobruk"), masquerades as Zorro and makes the soldiers look like fools. In "The Mask of Zorro," Zorro attacks a squadron of Mexican troops escorting a carriage from behind. Stockwell's Zorro does the same thing here. The daughter of an indebted landowner consents to letting the Governor marry his daughter who has just returned from Spain. In the final showdown scene, at the Governor's residence, three Zorrosthus the significance of the titletake on the Mexican military authorities. Remember, in "The Legend of Zorro" that everybody wanted to be Zorro! Sure, "The Three Swords of Zorro" doesn't have the budget of either "The Mask of Zorro" or "The Legend of Zorro," but it has just as much spirit.
"The Three Swords of Zorro" takes place in the 1830s and the Mexican soldiers carry black powder weapons, while Zorro relies on his sword and his bullwhip. A corrupt governor (Antonio Prieto of "A Fistful of Dollars") wants to wed the daughter of a landowner, but Zorro intercedes on the behalf of both the downtrodden peasants but also the landowner's daughter.
"One of the best scenes has Diego donning his Zorro disguise at the cantina when the soldiers intimidate a peasant. Diego appears as Zorro and defeats all the soldiers and lets the insulted peasant make them look like imbeciles. Later, in another scene, the soldiers try to collect tribute for the peasants late at night in the belief that Zorro will not intervene. Boy, are they wrong! He forces the defeated captain to give the peasants twenty pesos. When the disgruntled governor learns of this incident, he tells the captain that the twenty pesos are coming out of his pocket. The scene where Zorro charges the Mexican troops from the rear and keeps knocking one after another off their horses as he works his way to the front to confront the governor is good.
Guy Stockwell makes a passable Zorro.
"The Three Swords of Zorro" qualifies as a decent swashbuckler.
"The Three Swords of Zorro" takes place in the 1830s and the Mexican soldiers carry black powder weapons, while Zorro relies on his sword and his bullwhip. A corrupt governor (Antonio Prieto of "A Fistful of Dollars") wants to wed the daughter of a landowner, but Zorro intercedes on the behalf of both the downtrodden peasants but also the landowner's daughter.
"One of the best scenes has Diego donning his Zorro disguise at the cantina when the soldiers intimidate a peasant. Diego appears as Zorro and defeats all the soldiers and lets the insulted peasant make them look like imbeciles. Later, in another scene, the soldiers try to collect tribute for the peasants late at night in the belief that Zorro will not intervene. Boy, are they wrong! He forces the defeated captain to give the peasants twenty pesos. When the disgruntled governor learns of this incident, he tells the captain that the twenty pesos are coming out of his pocket. The scene where Zorro charges the Mexican troops from the rear and keeps knocking one after another off their horses as he works his way to the front to confront the governor is good.
Guy Stockwell makes a passable Zorro.
"The Three Swords of Zorro" qualifies as a decent swashbuckler.