WHY IS THE SERIES 'ZORRO' (1957-1959) SO GOOD?
The justice fighter, the invincible swordsman, a hero loved by kids and adults alike. What makes him so lovable?
Creado por: Johnston McCulley
Dirigido por Norman Foster
Empresa: The Walt Disney Company
The great protagonist is Diego de la Vega (Guy Williams), son of a wealthy family, that upon his return to Los Angeles in early 1800s after studying in Spain, finds that a tyrant rules his town, and then decides to wear the skin of the fox, Zorro, a masked vigilante. Thus, as a character he has the attraction of the double life: on the one hand, he pretends he is not a fighter and, furthermore, that he doesn’t even know how to fight, and is taken by most people as a coward for this refusal to fight altogether, including his own father. However, of course, he does this so that suspicions about him being Zorro do not arise or at least get quickly disregarded, and as Zorro, his mannerisms are chivalry imposing and filled with trust or even arrogance, thus maximizing the differences with his Diego part. The double life, therefore, creates either humorous or dramatic effects due to the things he has to withstand without saying or doing what he would really like to as Diego, but he also mocks his enemies (without them realizing) as Diego with remarks that annoys them taking advantage of the facts he learns as Zorro. Also, his true personality is a calm, kind, and good humoured one, which makes for great moments when he loses his composure or is about to.
Bernardo (Gene Sheldon) is both Diego’s closest friend and servant. He is a mute that poses as a deaf-mute so that people talks freely in his presence and thus he becomes a valuable source of information for Zorro. And also, he usually pretends to be a bit idiot, which is also helpful several times. Bernardo has had, a few times, to help Diego calm down before he makes a mistake in the few occasions in which he loses his temper, and has been trained by Diego in the skills to fight and ride.
Sergeant García (Henry Calvin) provides a great amount of humour and joy with his clumsiness and not sharp intelligence, his music (as he sings many songs in the show) and, quite particularly, his sort of comes and goes with his virtues and defects: he gets scared easily (especially to the dangers he cannot see but know are out there) and sometimes he flees, but other times he is very courageous; he also wishes to have more money than his soldier’s low income, which makes him want to capture Zorro for the reward, but he also laments that he’s been captured (when an impostor appeared to have been so) and recognizes that Zorro defends the poor and fights injustice; also, his great appetite for both food and alcohol gets him in trouble many times and makes him neglect his duties. All in all, nonetheless, he is fundamentally a good and kind person and his friendship with Diego is an important part for the series plot as it is the sergeant who gives Diego important information, and Diego can usually convince him of what is the best course of action to solve a problem in the periods in which the Sergeant is acting commander of Los Angeles.
Don Alejandro (George J. Lewis), Diego’s a bit short tempered father, is very disappointed by Diego’s seemingly reluctance to fight, which causes several arguments between them until around half of the series, where it is shown that Alejandro has discovered Diego’s identity as Zorro and becomes henceforth another one of his allies.
Besides these characters there is a huge amount of interesting ones, whether enemies or allies or both or none of these, that would appear for a few episodes or even only one to never reappear or be spoken of again. However, two antagonists do make themselves very noticeable: the first of the series, Captain Monasterio (Britt Lomond), the corrupt and greedy comandante of Los Angeles, a most charismatic villain that lasts 13 episodes, and immediately after his departure the saga of the Eagle begins, the longest one. The Eagle (Charles Korvin) is the head of a plot to take over California and sell it to another country, and Zorro will have to fight his minions as they arrive to Los Angeles to prevent them from acquiring money, disrupt peace and weaken the military forces, until eventually the very own Eagle will appear in the very house of Diego.
So after having went through the main characters, the other important points to remark are the following:
The music is magnificent in this way: it’s not just there, but it adds to the scene the right emotions, both with themes for fights, for each character, and for more general pieces, besides the several songs.
The grand themes: Zorro fights evil and tyranny, not legal acts of their own government (whether he likes them or not) but he certainly breaks the law in his pursuit of justice. Because of the historical setting in which the story occurs, this means that his most helped people tend to be the poor, and Diego tries to help them with his Diego persona as well. And also, Zorro ends up working as a new vigilant conscience for some with vices or some mistake under special circumstances, and for them Zorro becomes a guide or a helping hand into the right path.
The pace: each chapter is practically perfectly timed to be interesting from beginning to end of its 25 minutes, and that each chapter has that length was a very good decision.
Detective like conversations: Especially between Diego and Bernardo and Diego and sergeant.
And finally: Many episodes end up with happy laughter from the characters on frame, leaving the viewers with a good feeling.