When I was a kid my Mom would leave me at my Grandparents house every weekend to go of and do parental things so I got to watch a lot of Saturday afternoon TV. Back then we had about 5 channels to choose from and they tended to replay a lot of the same old movies over and over again. There were 2 movies that I really perked up for when they were on. One was a schlocky horror movie called Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell about a family that adopts one of Satan’s puppies. It was basically an Omen rip-off but I loved it and it scared the piss outta me every time. The other was a version of Zorro that was (and still is in my book) the high watermark for the classic tale. This version was directed by Duccio Tessari and stared the famed French actor Alain Delon. It had the best acting of any version I’d ever seen and didn’t have as much of the silly campy feel of the Disney series. It’s got a little bit but not a lot. Alain Delon played Zorro very much like Christian Bale in the Batman reboots and made you feel this was a guy doing what he had to do. The title song is one of the best pieces of film music ever written and so damn catchy! I spent 20 years trying to find it with no luck. Take a second and go listen to it. I’ll wait… Then one day my friend Steve brought over the movie Bottlerocket and I fell out of my chair in awe when I heard them re-use that song somewhere in the movie. Someone else was a fan! The entire soundtrack is available on Amazon now and if you like music like the 3:10 to Yuma soundtrack then you’ll love this.
For years the movie disappeared from TV and I couldn’t find it anywhere in stores or on VHS. I told all my friends how amazing this film was and I could never share it. Then the switch to DVD came about and one day while I was in Fry’s in LA I found it! It was sitting in a bargain bin for $4.99 next to stacks of porn and I immediately bought all 3 of the copies they had left. As soon as I got home I put it in and was transported back to my youth for all of about 6 minutes until it started to cut in weird places. Yes it was the film I loved but it wasn’t complete! There were key scenes missing that made the story whole and I was devastated! One of my favorite scenes where a little local boy tells Don Diego about the legend of Zorro is completely absent and you have no idea how this man transformed into the masked avenger. To this day I have searched high and low for a complete copy of the film but haven’t been able to find it. And as I write this I had the idea to stop looking for the DVD and go old school and right in front of me on Amazon is a VHS copy with a runtime of 124 minutes. The original! And it’s new and in the shrink wrap for $2.50! Jackpot! I’ll report back if this is the one when I dig up a VCR to actually watch it but until then if you even remotely like Zorro I can’t recommend the Alain Delon version more highly. It’s in my 5 top favorite movies of all-time right up there with Hard Boiled and the Seven Samurai.
Update: I got screwed!
Let me know if you wind up digitizing the uncut version!
Turns out it wasn’t the uncut version. I don’t think it exists at this point except for on a reel in some storage locker in some old theater.