Saturday, November 12, 2022

Movies I Stayed Up Late For: Zorro



"Zorro" was a 1974 multi-country production starring Alain Delon, star of the internationally regarded Le Samourai and Scorpio, who made his biggest American splash as a pilot in the cumbersome Concorde:Airport 79.  

My put-upon sister took me to see "Zorro" theatrically during a late 70's re-release. I remember some serious swashbuckling activity, fantastic stunt work involving equine action, a lot of Alain Delon smooching, and the Oliver Onions song Zorro's Back, which was used to great effect a couple years back in the Wes Anderson and Luke and Owen Wilson collaboration, Bottle Rocket.   

After seeing the film, I ran around the living room, fencing air villians with a stick, my mom's afghan around my shoulders, as I became the Somers Village Zorro.  In reality, I was just an idiot. I've spoken in this blog about heroes I had as a kid.  French heartthrob Alain Deloin was one of them.  to this day, he's my favorite Zorro. Yeah, yeah, I know, the serialized episodes from back in the day, Antonio Banderas, The Gay Blade, etc, et al.  

No. It's Delon. 

This film enjoyed some great late night runs on our pre-cable television sets back in the day, and I eventually was able to track it back down on disc sometime in the early 2010s.  Of all the movies from my youth, this one is the one that I am still the most shocked I was able to locate on Blu-ray.  So join me in singing the long-forgotten (unless you happen to be Wes Anderson) classic: 


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