The Sign of Zorro ** (1958, Guy Williams, Henry Calvin, Gene Sheldon, Romney Brent, Britt Lomond, George Lewis, Lisa Gaye) – Classic Movie Review 13,781

Walt Disney Studios’ 1958 colour adventure film The Sign of Zorro stars Guy Williams in another spirited swashbuckling entry in the Zorro series.

Directors Norman Foster and Lewis R Foster’s 1958 colour adventure film The Sign of Zorro stars Guy Williams in another spirited swashbuckling entry in the Zorro series, with plenty of swashbuckling action and light comedy.

Guy Williams is a very acceptable, quite charismatic Don Diego de la Vega, aka the masked swashbuckler swordsman Zorro, taking on the baddies of Spanish California, in this pleasantly adequate and entertaining Walt Disney Studios version of Johnston McCulley’s adventure novel The Curse of Capistrano, made up of footage from eight episodes (the Monastario story arc) of the Disney TV series Zorro (1957-59).

Britt Lomond thoroughly enjoys the chief villain role, as Capitán Monastario; Gene Sheldon has the thankless task of being Zorro’s deaf-mute servant sidekick, Bernardo.

Don Diego returns from Spain with Bernardo to his hometown of Los Angeles now under the dictatorial rule of Capitán Monastario. Diego is a foppish aristocrat by day but becomes the masked vigilante hero Zorro by night, and frees his city from the rule of the evil tyrant Monastario.

Directors Norman Foster and Lewis R Foster are unrelated.

The Sign of Zorro was first released in Japan on 18 November 1958, followed by the UK in December 1958, Sweden in April 1959, France in April 1959 and Italy in May 1959. It was finally released in the US on 11 June 1960.

The runtime is about 80 minutes, though the exact length varies by region.

After the TV series and the movie feature, resourceful Disney had a third bite of the apple in the VHS era. The 1997 home‑video ‘special’ The Sign of Zorro is a home‑video re‑edit of the original TV series, packaged and released by Walt Disney Home Video as a feature‑length film for VHS release and later DVD/ digital release. It re‑edits the first 13 episodes of the series into a single 90‑minute picture marketed as a ‘theatrical film’ though it never had a cinema run. The runtime is about 90 minutes thanks to adding footage from the extra five episodes. It is widely available on DVD and on streaming, whereas the cinema version is harder to find.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,781

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