The Mark of Zorro 1974

Don Diego de la Vega Frank Langella resigns his commission as a cadet and sails from Spain to California. Arriving in the Pueblo of Los Angeles, he learns that his father has been replaced as Alcalde by Don Luis Quintero Robert Middleton. Quintero is a puppet of the witty and urbane swordsman, Captain Esteban Ricardo Montalban, and the once-free populace are oppressed by high taxes and cruel laws. Beatings and imprisonment are common for minor infractions.

Diego immediately takes on the persona of a fop to appear ineffectual to the Alcalde and Esteban, earning himself the nickname “peacock.” His father perceives him as weak and useless, a sacrifice Diego is willing to endure to achieve his goal. Determined to restore freedom, Diego secretly takes one of a pair of ancestral swords and adopts the disguise of the legendary masked hero, El Zorro. His terror campaign against the Alcalde and the Captain eventually rouses the people against them. In his role as the fop, he romances the Alcalde’s beautiful niece, Teresa Anne Archer, whom he grows to love. He simultaneously flirts with the Alcalde’s wife, Inez Quintero Louise Sorel to gain information and make her lover, Esteban, jealous.

Zorro’s old teacher, Frey Felipe Tom Lacy, is accused of being Zorro and arrested. Diego effects a rescue, while his father leads the peons and caballeros and marches on the Alcalde’s palace. As Zorro forces the Alcalde to sign a letter of resignation, Esteban appears and forces a duel to the death. Esteban—startled when Diego takes off the Zorro mask, quietly says:

So… inside a peacock, we find a hawk

Hearing the rebels storm the palace, Diego—again wearing the mask—runs outside as Don Alejandro Vega Gilbert Roland shows the Alcalde’s resignation to the crowd, and then orders Don Luis and his wife be sent back to Spain in dishonor. He then remarks that “the sword of Diego has never enjoyed such distinction,” to which Zorro replies “Thank you… Father.” Realizing that his son is Zorro, Alejandro smiles as the two raise and cross their swords together in victory.