- Title: Zorro – Presenting Señor Zorro
- IMDb: link
As Amazon Prime debuts a new Zorro series, Flashback Friday takes a look back at Walt Disney’s classic series of the late 1950s featuring the adventures of Zorro fighting injustice in the early 19th Century. After three years abroad Don Diego de la Vega (Guy Williams) returns to California from Spain along with his mute man-servant Bernardo (Gene Sheldon). On the ship back, Diego learns the trouble arising in his home comes from the ruthless Commandante Capitán Monastario (Britt Lomond) and chooses to not return as the worldly adventurer and swordfighter but instead a boorish aristocrat who could not possibly be seen as a threat. Don Alejandro de la Vega (George J. Lewis) is disheartened by his son’s disinterest in local troubles, but Diego keeps up the charade for everyone he meets choosing instead to take action later that night while wearing a mask.
We don’t have to wait long to see our hero in action. Zorro’s first mission is rescuing a local neighbor unjustly jailed by the Commandante. In what will be a recurring theme, Zorro is able to best the Commandante with a sword while making the rest of the soldiers look foolish before he successfully escapes back into the night. Along with providing the basic set-up (by admittedly shoving a ton of plot into Diego’s dialogue on board the ship) and allowing Williams to show off his sword skills both in and out of the Zorro costume, the opening episode of the series introduces most of the key members of the series including Diego and Zorro, the Commandante, Bernado, Sgt. Demetrio Lopez Garcia (Henry Calvin), Alejandro, and Zorro’s black stallion Tornado. While available in a colorized version, Zorro’s adventures from this period are always best in black-and-white.
