Film 26/52: Zorro, The Gay Blade (1981)

 

Zorro, The Gay Blade, was released the month after Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, though I can't recall if I first saw it theatrically. I was already familiar with George Hamilton from the Dracula spoof Love At First Bite, which preceded this film. And I was quite surprised to discover that his next theatrical role wasn't until The Godfather Part III in 1990! Hamilton does a fine job in the dual roles of Don Diego Vega and his flamboyant brother Ramon (aka Bunny Wigglesworth) — sons of the recently departed Zorro. And a shout out to James Booth, as the eyepatch-wearing Velasquez, who would later play Ernie Niles in Twin Peaks. 

After the original Zorro's offscreen death, he bequeaths his legacy to his sons; first Diego, and when he injures himself, Ramon takes over — more flamboyantly, as you would expect. Don Diego's Esteban makes it his goal to track down Zorro, and one of my favorite scenes is a classic masked ball where attendees all come dressed as Zorro, believing the request came from Esteban himself. It's a gag most recently employed in Disney's Cruella. Vonna's favorite gag was the naming of the California landowners (a joke probably lost on many unfamiliar with California cities):  Don Diego from San Fernando, Don Francisco from San Jose, Don Fernando from San Diego, Don Jose from San Bernardino, and Don Luis Obispo is from Bakersfield! 

I was pleasantly surprised how entertaining Hamilton is in the role(s). Bear in mind, this too is a spoof, and the film is full of references not politically correct 40 years-on, but taken as a product of its time, it is fun experience. It was nice to see Brenda Vaccaro, post-Capricorn One, as a former love interest of Don Diego now married to his childhood friend, Esteban (brilliantly played by Ron Leibman, who years later was memorable as Rachel's dad on Friends). Lauren Hutton plays Charlotte, Don Diego's current love interest (he's jealous when she throws herself at his uninterested brother). The filmmaker's most brilliant move was to appropriate Max Steiner's theme from The Adventures of Don Juan, which might get more play in the film than in the original Errol Flynn classic. 

We decided to wrap up our alphabetic run with this lighter fare, and I think it was a fine choice. With Z in the rear-view mirror, we're officially at the halfway point of our 52 Pick-Up series. I've still got a few days to finalize plans for how we'll populate the back half of this series... 


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