The Sign of Zorro

Release Date: June 11, 1960

Watch Date: July 10 – July 11, 2023

“When Don Diego returns from his schooling in Spain he finds his hometown under the heel of a cruel dictator. To free the pueblo of Los Angeles, Don Diego must play a dual role. Outwardly he is an ineffectual fop, but secretly he is the masked avenger, Zorro. With the help of his mute servant Bernardo, Diego must challenge the cruel tyranny of Monastario, commandante of the pueblo, to free his people from oppression.”

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    Once upon a time, Disney had a popular television show that wasn’t making them any more money, so, they took the fairly cheap move of turning several episodes of the show into a film, which renewed interest in the series and got them another season and a second movie. Profit for all!

    That movie? “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.”

    “The Sign of Zorro” has a similar origin story, in that it to was a successful television show for our mouse’s network, airing between 1957 and 1959 with four hour long specials in the early 60s. It was extremely popular, people loved it. The show would even go on to be colorized in 1992. That’s how much it stuck in the minds of people. But the film? Eh.

    You have to make a pretty good compilation to get people to buy tickets to something they’ve already been able to watch, for free, on television, and cut up moments of a film in black and white – Davy Crockett was at least colorized for it’s film release – several years after the show ended…That just doesn’t cut it. It couldn’t draw audiences in 1960, and if it’s not something that was considered good on release by pretty much anyone, it’s not going to be something that wows you decades later.

    I want to talk about the release date for a second, because yes, if you look up “The Sign of Zorro” the first thing that will pop us is that the film was technically released first in 1958. And it was. There’s no arguing with facts. It was released in 1958, in the UK. Bob is from the United States, and to keep release dates in as simple an order as possible, because we have literally over a thousand movies to watch, I go by the American schedule – and the release to general theatres. I’m sure Bob is now saluting or playing the national anthem somewhere, or loudly stating (now that he’s realized I do this at all) that the American release date is the only one that should matter, but anyways, that is why there is a difference between the common date associated with the film on Google, and the order in which we watch our movies.

    And since we’re on the subject of release dates, can I just say that discussing the release date of this film is actually more interesting to me than discussing this film. It commits the worse sin in cinematography – it’s boring. There’s nothing to talk about because it isn’t memorable. It’s not terrible, sure, but that just means there’s nothing to even complain about. It doesn’t capture your interest in positive or negative ways, it’s bland. Even the ending just sort of fizzles; when I realized there was a minute left I figured there had to be a mistake with Disney+, but no, the movie just sort of…ends.

    Save yourself the trouble, save yourself the ninety minutes, and just skip this film. It’s going to add nothing to your life. Honestly, you’d probably be better off simply watching the two seasons of the show, which without even watching I’ll tell you is better paced and much better at drawing you into the drama.