Captain Juan Ramon and his troopers, rule the peasants of Old California with an iron fist and the people pray for a deliverer. When the soldiers torture a priest in a public square,a masked champion appears, dressed in black, known only as Zorro. With his dazzling swordsmanship, he disperses and humiliates the troops, while freeing the clergyman, to the delight of the villagers. Zorro launches his own secret war, harassing and sabotaging Ramon's men, and always eluding capture. As the soldiers squeeze the people to the breaking point, Zorro leads a dangerous attempt to overthrow tyranny and bring justice to all!
Based on the 1913 story "The Curse of Capistrano," and lavishly produced, The Mark Of Zorro is one of Douglas Fairbanks greatest roles. Fairbanks shreds the spectacular sets with his amazing acrobatic skills, seeming to defy gravity. Only eighteen months after his debut in D.W. Griffith's The Lamb (1916), the handsome, charismatic young actor had established himself as Hollywood's third highest paid actor, behind only Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford. The mighty triumvirate of friends went on to found United Artists in 1919, and the studio's financial success was fueled to a great extent by Fairbanks' motion pictures. As the first president of the Motion Picture Academy Of Arts and Sciences, Fairbanks presented the very first Oscars in 1927. The overwhelming success of The Mark Of Zorro led to his other classic swashbuckling adventures, most notably The Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924).