Mark of the Renegade

Hugo Fregonese: Mark of the Renegade (US 1951). Lobby card.

Hugo Fregonese: Mark of the Renegade (US 1951). Ricardo Montalbán and Cyd Charisse dance the flamenco.

Hugo Fregonese: Mark of the Renegade (US 1951). Ricardo Montalbán and Cyd Charisse.

Hugo Fregonese: Mark of the Renegade (US 1951) avec Cyd Charisse et Ricardo Montalbán.

Le Signe des renégats / Luopion merkki / Blixtrandre klingor
Hugo Fregonese / États-Unis / 1951 / 81 min / 35 mm / VOSTF
Avec Ricardo Montalbán, Cyd Charisse, J. Carrol Naish.
La Cinémathèque française : Rétrospective Hugo Fregonese
Salle Henri Langlois, dimanche 2 avril 2023, 17h00 18h25
This movie was not included in Bologna's 2022 Hugo Fregonese retrospective.

La Cinémathèque française : "En 1825, lors de l'avènement de la République du Mexique, Marcos Zappa est victime d'un odieux chantage au terme d'un exil forcé de plusieurs années. En échange du silence de Don Pedro García sur son passé, il doit séduire la belle Manuela de Vásquez et l'épouser pour mieux porter le discrédit sur son père."

"Vingt ans avant La Planète des singes et L'Île fantastique, qui le rendront célèbre, le sémillant Ricardo Montalbán pastiche Zorro dans ce film d'aventure exotique. Tantôt western, comédie musicale, film de pirates et de cape et d'épée, Le Signe des renégats vaut aussi pour son Technicolor flamboyant et le numéro imparable de Cyd Charisse."

AA: Thom Andersen's cinematic essay Los Angeles Plays Itself (US 2003) is a compilation of 215 films about the City of Angels, but Mark of the Renegade is not included. I cannot recall a film covering an earlier period of L.A. history than this one, set in the year 1825, ten years before Los Angeles got city status. Pueblo de los Ángeles (El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles) had been founded in 1781 as a Spanish town. The presidio, the mission and the pueblo appear in Hugo Fregonese's film, which is set in the Mexican period (1821–1846) of California.

That period is best known in popular culture from the adventures of Zorro. The mysterious character had been created by Johnston McCulley in his story The Curse of Capistrano (1919) and promptly adapted as a grand adventure movie by Douglas Fairbanks in The Mark of Zorro (1920). The masked avenger leading a double life as an effete aristocrat and a dashing hero was pathbreaking in popular culture in many ways.

Mark of the Renegade is also based on a story by the prolific McCulley. The protagonist this time is a double agent called Marcos Zappa whose forehead has been branded the with letter R, for Renegade. Even the audience is not let in the secret of his existence until the finale. Mark of the Renegade is a pirate film, a swashbuckler and a romantic adventure story.

Ricardo Montalbán is well cast and gets to display his magnificent nude upper torso as the mysterious emissary.

Hugo Fregonese excels in action and adventure scenes and in the spectacular fiesta sequence. But I was thinking that George Sidney and Vincente Minnelli would have brought even more panache into this tale of make-believe and shifting identities. There is something forced at times in the merry-making.

Cyd Charisse was on the brink of the stardom she soon achieved in Singin' in the Rain, The Band Wagon and Brigadoon. She had been studying dance since 1934 in Los Angeles and the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo and appeared in movies since 1941. Here she already brings dignity, elegance and grandeur to her performance.

The electrifying flamenco pas de deux with Montalbán is an absolute highlight of the movie. The passion and the style are compelling. Charisse and Montalbán are among the most unforgettable dancing couples in the history of Hollywood. "Just one look / That's all it took". The chemistry is unmistakable at first glance.

Mark of the Renegade belongs to the movies in which the subject of the cancelled wedding is central.

The colour of the 35 mm print is fine and there is a softness which may be inherent in the Technicolor sources.