Mark of Zorro

Originally titled "The Curse of Capistrano" in its 1919 debut, this exciting tale achieved immortal fame thanks to Douglas Fairbanks's 1920 blockbuster film, "The Mark of Zorro"?a cinematic triumph that inspired Johnston McCulley to retitle his novel and dedicate it to Fairbanks. Set in Mexican California during the 1820s, the story follows the career of Don Diego Vega, by all appearances an effete and foppish aristocrat. But Vega's timorous reputation is nothing more than a mask to conceal his alter ego: a California Robin Hood known as Zorro, whose swift blade strikes down those who exploit the poor and oppressed. The inspiration for dozens of film and television adaptations, "The Mark of Zorro" remains a paradigm of swashbuckling adventure.