1920 - THE MARK OF ZORRO, a big jump forward for the Hollywood adventure film

 Silent superstar actor Douglas Fairbanks produced this film which was a real leap forward for the action film.  Fairbanks is the Robin Hood of old California Zorro. Fairbanks was known for doing his own stunts and in this film he is extremely impressive zipping around outwitting the evil colonial army.

In many ways this is still a very exciting film.  The action scenes still stand the test of time and Fairbanks along with Chaplin was one of the early superstars of Hollywood.  The screenplay was by Johnston McCulley.  Fred Niblo the director of the original Ben Hur was behind the camera. 

The film runs a fast paced 90 minutes.

1925 - BEN HUR, the spectacular silent version

My DVD is the restored version of the silent film complete with color sequences and scenes tinted to achieve a special visual mood. 

Anyway you look at it, this is quite an incredible film.  The two large scale action sequences, the battle at sea with the pirates and the famous chariot race are very exciting and impressive sequences. 

The story does change things a bit from the 1959 remake with Ben Hur raising an army to place under the command of Jesus in order to expel the Romans from Judea.  The 1959 version dropped this subplot probably for the better but it does give this version a fascinating twist.

The 1925 version of Ben Hur took 2 years to film with lots of production problems which included, a change of directors and leading men.  The production started filming in Italy and was closed down and relocated to Hollywood.

This is still a pretty incredible film even compared to the remake which is a very good film as well.

143 minutes.