Zorro: The Gay Blade **(1981, George Hamilton, Lauren Hutton, Brenda Vaccaro, Ron Leibman, James Booth) – Classic Movie Review 7971

George Hamilton tries to repeat the success of his 1979 Love at First Bite Dracula spoof to less avail in director Peter Medak’s silly send-up of The Mark of Zorro. Hamilton is pretty amusing in three roles, an actor’s dream gig.

He amiably plays the masked avenger Zorro’s soppy son Don Diego Vega, who becomes the new Zorro, and his long-lost flamboyantly gay twin brother Ramon, now known as Lieutenant Bunny Wigglesworth, who agrees to take his brother’s place as Zorro temporarily – with some colourful changes. Bunny becomes The Gay Blade.

But Ron Leibman overdoes the bad guy Esteban, the military dictator who has taken over the rule of California, while Hal Dresner’s comedy action adventure screenplay, though affectionate and (arguably) reasonably inoffensive, is rarely funny enough. It was made in Mexico, and it seems like the cast at least had a great time.

Also in the cast are Lauren Hutton, Brenda Vaccaro, James Booth, Donovan Scott, Helen Burns, Clive Revill, Eduardo Noriega, Carolyn Seymour, Jorge Russek, and Eduardo Alcaraz.

The score for the credits and action sequences was written by Max Steiner for Adventures of Don Juan (1948) starring Errol Flynn.

Director Medak made The Ruling Class, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg and The Changeling, and went on to the 1990 The Krays.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7971

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com