He fights injustice wearing fetish gear. So, you can either play Johnston McCulley’s Zorro dark and moody, or rather silly and randy. Many versions have opted for the latter. Remember George Hamilton in Zorro: The Gay Blade? At least Martin Campbell’s first movie with Antonio Banderas kept the mood light without getting too silly (but maybe not so much the second). In contrast, the short-lived newspaper comic strip really explored the darker side of Don Diego’s psyche. However, the new French-speaking swashbuckler leans back into broad farce throughout co-creators Benjamin Charbit & Noe Debre’s eight-episode French-language Zorro, which just released on MHz Choice.
Don Diego de la Vega has hung up his whip, retiring from Robin Hood-style vigilantism. Instead, he concentrates on boring public works projects he hopes to implement once he succeeds his father as alcalde of [Old] Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Don Alejandro has no confidence in his supposedly clumsy, over-intellectual son, so he refuses to transfer power, until he leaves office feet-first. Yet, he still bedevils Don Diego as a very judgmental ghost.
Of course, the old man never knew Don Diego was Zorro, the notorious “Fox.” Similarly, Don Diego never knew Don Alejandro had completely mortgaged Los Angeles to sly Don Emmanuel, who now intends to collect. As the crooked villain exploits the people with impunity, Don Diego once again assumes the guise of Zorro. As usual, he steals the hearts of women, including, much to his own consternation, his wife Gabriella’s. Given their marriage’s recent doldrums, Don Diego cannot help seducing her as Zorro, but then he feels the pain of betrayal as Don Diego.
Indeed, a more serious treatment might have made considerable psychological hay out of Don Diego’s split persona. However, Charbit, Debre, and writer Emmanuel Poulain-Arnaud largely play the situation for naughty laughs. Frankly, in terms of tone, this Zorro often feels like a Mission-flavored prequel to Jean Dujardin’s OSS 117 spy spoof franchise.
In contrast, Audrey Dana is terrific navigating her unusual love triangle, with sensitivity and passion. Weirdly, Gregory Gadebois is also quite memorable, as Sgt. Cristobel Garcia, of the Los Angeles garrison. Unlike the portly soldiers who were weekly fat-shamed on the Disney-Guy Williams series (which remains one of the more successful Zorro productions), Garcia comes to self-consciously embrace Zorro as the nemesis that gives meaning to his existence.
Technically, there is precedent for a French language Zorro, because Alain Delon’s 1975 spaghetti western Zorro was produced in both French and Italian. It also featured its share of physical gags. Still, the French dialogue sounds conspicuously out of place, even though Dujardin and particularly Dana can credibly pass for Latin lovers.
Arguably, there is something refreshing about how the cast embraces this Zorro’s goofiness, but it is hard to maintain the near-miss mistaken identities and door-slamming hijinks over eight forty-minute (give or take) episodes. It’s a lot. Recommended mostly for fans of the Hamilton and Delon Zorros, the new French Zorro is now streaming on MHz Choice.
