Westerns

The Mark of Zorro

Douglas Fairbanks, the most famous of the Zorros, made this mix of comedy and derring-do reluctantly, as a change-of-pace from his modern-dress playboy roles. The Old California adventure fared so well at the box office it caused the athletic superstar to rethink his image and don period finery for his best later vehicles, including The Thief of Baghdad.

Here, Doug has a ball playing dual roles, as hopeless fop Don Diego and as masked caballero Zorro, sworn enemy of all oppressors. When he isn't dueling with the evil Capt. Ramon (Robert McKim) or rescuing peasants, Don Diego/Zorro courts the lovely Lolita (Marguerite de la Motte) with bad magic tricks and worse manners. In the end, when Lolita's family is jailed, our hero throws off his masquerade, whips out his rapier, and wins the leading lady's hand.

Full of fun plot twists, secret passageways, and Fairbanks's signature arms-akimbo bravado, this silent classic (with restored sepia interiors) became the model for all the Errol Flynn-Tyrone Power swashbucklers to come. --Glenn Lovell

The Mark of Zorro is the swashbuckling story of a nineteenth century Robin Hood intent on freeing his beloved San Juan Capistrano from an evil Governor and his lecherous Captain. Don Diego Vega (Douglas Fairbanks) must assume the masked identity of Zorro to convince the Caballeros to join him in his quest to save the city from certain ruin.

The Vanishing American

In an untamed land, an unbroken spirit. Based on the famous novel by Zane Grey, "The Vanishing American" is an epic scale historical melodrama about the mistreatment of the Native Americans and their ability to survive in spite of the governmental, environmental and inter-tribal hardships. Filmed on location in Monument Valley and the Betatakin Cliff Dwellings of Arizona, this colossal Paramount production offers a sweeping history of the American Indian--from the prehistoric "basket maker" to the 20th-Century Navajo.

The Toll Gate/His Bitter Pill

William S. Hart was the first and arguably the most fascinating of silent-film cowboy stars. Hard and humorless, with a face that looked chiseled out of granite, he straddled the line between hero and criminal as the "Good Badman" of silent Western cinema. In The Toll Gate (1920), directed by Hart regular Lambert Hillyer, he plays Black Deering, the leader of a train-robbing gang sold out by one of his own men. Deering escapes with revenge on his mind, but he's wounded and seeks shelter in the lonely cabin of an abandoned woman (the beautiful Anna Q. Nilsson) where he considers the possibility of a new life, but only after he escapes not one but two posses, one of which is led by his betrayer. The stunning locations paint a hard, rugged West where Hart has practically stepped out of the craggy landscape, ruthless enough to take on the elements on their own terms and quietly driven by a harsh moral code that demands he put his own life on the line to save a boy. The only disappointment in this tinted and toned presentation is the sorry shape of the deteriorated master: rain-like scratches cover the picture in places, and burns, bleeding, washouts, and overexposures overwhelm the picture in particularly damaged spots. Also included (on the Kino video and Image DVD) is the Mack Sennett short His Bitter Pill, a slapstick parody that pokes fun at Hart's stony persona. --Sean Axmaker

In "The Toll Gate" (1920, 73 min.), William S. Hart stars as Black Deering, a gunfighter and outlaw who, upon escaping from the authorities, flees into the wilderness. Hiding in the cabin of an abandoned woman and her young child, Deering finally finds the possibility of redemption he never dared dream of. His only problem: two posses on his trail--and they want blood. Also included on this DVD is Mack Sennett's famous western parody "His Bitter Pill" (1916, 20 min.), done in the inimitable Keystone style and viciously lampooning the noble cowboy.