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| Donald Crisp: Don Q, Son of Zorro (US 1925). Douglas Fairbanks as Don Cesar de Vega. |
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| Donald Crisp: Don Q, Son of Zorro (US 1925). Douglas Fairbanks as Don Cesar de Vega. Photo: Douglas Fairbanks Coll., AMPAS/Margaret Herrick Library, Beverly Hills |
Opening Night
DON Q, SON OF ZORRO (Don X, il figlio di Zorro) (US 1925) dir: Donald Crisp. scen: Jack Cunningham, from the novel by Kate & Hesketh Prichard, Don Q’s Love Story
(1909). scen. editor: Lotta Woods. photog: Henry Sharp; assoc. photog: E. J. Vallejo. ed: William Nolan (film cutter). des: Edward M. Langley (supv. art dir.), Francesc [Francis] Cugat, Anton Grot, Harold Miles (art dir.), Harry Oliver (consulting artist). cost: Paul Burns (master of wardrobe). asst. dir: Frank Richardson. technical effects: Ned Mann. prod. mgr: Theodore Reed. research dir: Dr. Arthur Woods. mus: Mortimer Wilson (1925 orig. score). Fairbanks’ trainer: Snowy Baker.
cast: Douglas Fairbanks (Don Cesar de Vega; Zorro, his father), Mary Astor (Dolores de Muro), Jack McDonald (General de Muro), Donald Crisp (Don Sebastian), Stella De Lanti (The Queen), Warner Oland (The Archduke), Jean Hersholt (Don Fabrique Borusta), Albert MacQuarrie (Colonel Matsado), Lottie Pickford Forrest (Lola), Charles Stevens (Robledo), Tote Du Crow (Bernardo), Martha Franklin (The Duenna), Juliette Belanger (The Dancer), Roy Coulson (Her Admirer), Enrique Acosta (Ramon).
Uncredited: Princess María de los Dolores de Borbón de la Torre (Tavern Keeper’s Daughter), Manuel De Los Rios (The Bullfighter), Phil Gastrock (Man with Knife), Andre Lanoy (The Artist), Paul Luys (The Turkish Ambassador), Phil Sleeman (Guest at Archduke’s Ball), Hal Wilson (Gaspard), Baron Gosta Wreda (Man in Students’ Club), Carmen De Blasco, Fontaine La Rue, Elinor Vanderveer, Luis Alonso [Gilbert Roland], Francisco Madrid.
prod: Douglas Fairbanks, Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corporation. dist: United Artists Corporation. première: 15.6.1925 (Globe Theatre, New York City). copy: DCP, 107'22", col. (from 35 mm pos. nitr. + dupl. neg. acet., tinted & toned, 24 fps); titles: ENG. source: Det Danske Filminstitut, København.
Score composed and conducted by Andrej Goričar; performed live by the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra; commissioned by the Slovenska kinoteka.
Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone 2026: Special Events.
Viewed at Teatro Verdi, 3 Oct 2026
Tracey Goessel (GCM 2026): "Don Q, Son of Zorro is Douglas Fairbanks’ forgotten blockbuster. Announced as a project in January 1925, it combined his recent fascination with Spain with the sure-fire box-office draw of his Zorro character. He had been toying with the idea of a sequel to The Mark of Zorro as early as 1921. Apart from the Elmo Lincoln Tarzan films, sequels were then largely unheard of – certainly for big-budget productions with major stars. But the safety of a sequel seemed just the ticket. The Thief of Bagdad had a tremendously high gross, but its net profit was barely in the black. "
"Fairbanks was an ar tist , but also a businessman, willing to invest and risk, but not to the point of ruin. With Thief, he had pushed the envelope to it s limit . Now he needed to retrench – but not lose face. He was 1 years old, and about to produce a film less lavish than his last. Small wonder, then, that inter views began to appear that claimed just the opposite. “ ‘Don Q’ to Surpass ‘Thief of Bagdad’ ” barked Exhibitors Trade Review (21.2.1925), quoting Fairbanks: “ From the standpoint of costly production, this picture is very apt to more than rival ‘ The Thief of Bagdad’.” It was far from true. Don Q’s cost (including negative, print costs, commissions, and publicity) was $834,589 – less than half that of Thief."
"The story, involving a hand some (and characteristically cheery) American student , sent to Spain to round out his education, was derived from the pulp novel Don Q’s Love Story, written by Kate Prichard and her son Hesketh Prichard, a British explorer and war time sniper with a weakness for boy’s adventure fiction. The character of Zorro was simply shoehorned by Fairbanks into the plot as the hero’s American father. Armed with his wits (and wicked whip skills), young Don Cesar eludes a false charge of murdering a visiting archduke, woos the beautiful daughter of a General (who unwittingly plans her marriage to the actual murderer), and staging a fake suicide, becomes Don Q , an avenger cloaked in my stery and justice. "
"Fairbanks played both parts, repeating Mary Pickford s brilliant split-screen work from Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921). Donald Crisp not only played the film’s villain, but served as its director. Nineteen-year-old Mary Astor, who had co-starred with John Barrymore in 1924’s Beau Brummel, was tapped for the female lead. She was then embroiled in a torrid affair with Barrymore, and deemed the happily married Fairbanks disappointingly
unromantic: “…I found the man himself to be less exciting than the legends. For one thing, I was put out by his attitude toward me. He was nice to me, in the way a sophisticated man about town would be nice to a small and reasonably well-behaved child. I felt that I merited more attention than that!” (Mary Astor, My Story : An Autobiography, 1959) "
"Still, she liked him. It was hard not to. “It was all fun for him,” she recalled near the end of her life. “He wasn’t an actor at all. To me, he was an effect; he was a wonderful effect .” (Mary Astor, interview with Kevin Brownlow, Slate 518, Take 1, recorded for Hollywood, 1980)
She recalled particularly his intense training on the
Australian bullwhip with expert Snowy Baker – six weeks
of unceasing practice."
"Filming began on 26 January and was completed by late
April – a brisker shooting schedule than any of his earlier
swashbucklers. His sense of urgency, his desire to turn
around a quick hit, was gratified in the end. Audiences and
critics alike enthusiastically welcomed what they judged a
return to form. “ Without doubt one of the best that Doug
has had in some time from an all-around entertainment and
picture house standpoint,” wrote Fred Schader in Variety
(17.06.1925). Photoplay (August 1925) added: “…it is
guaranteed to drive little boys into frenzies of stunts until
they break an arm or a new fad comes along.” The verdict was
clear: while many saw much to admire in Thief, what they
really wanted from Fairbanks was to enjoy him. The grand
settings, the thousands of extras, the glorious costumes
were all well and good. But Don Q, everyone seemed to
feel, was just more fun. The film returned $1,616,872 to his
production company’s coffers, independent of its return to
United Artists. Only Robin Hood had a greater profit.
And, indeed, the film is a lot of fun, draped though it is
under a heav y load of sets and costumes. But Fairbanks was
peeking out from underneath the finery, wooing the fair lass,
whipping his whip, and in general raising sunny hell. “Doug
has never leaped so high, moved so quickly or kept in such
constant motion so long before. The man isn’t human, that’s
what he isn’t. He’s perpetual youth, a three-ringed circus,
the personification of all juvenile heroes, all rolled into
one…” wrote W. Ward Marsh in the Cleveland Plain Dealer
(19.10.1925). Released in Italy as Don X, il figlio di Zorro,
the film was a great hit, prompting accolades in La settima
arte (12.1925), which quoted an unnamed “authoritative
Italian critic”: “Don X, figlio di Zorro is cinema’s latest
leap towards perfection: if the very pinnacle has not been
reached, then it can’t be in our time. As for the actors, the
cinematography, the sets – everything, everything reveals a
subtle intuition and evident elegance. In the aristocracy of
films, Don X is the king.”
"Until now, the only available copies of Don Q were badly
damaged 16mm prints. The Danish Film Institute’s beautiful
new restoration returns the film to its original luster of a
century ago." – Tracey Goessel
The Music
Andrej Goričar (GCM 2026): "Don Q, Son of Zorro captivated me with
its undertone, which struck me as wonderfully, gently
fantastic. Light-hearted, nonchalant, and slightly idealistic.
Charming. Seeing the way these impressions merge with the
film’s exceptional tempo, its comedic tone and adventurous
nature, and its initially light-hearted story that takes a
dramatic turn in an instant, I knew this was a film I’d
love to compose music for. As I write this note, my Don Q
score needs me to add only a few refined finishing touches
regarding the orchestration – a compositional technique
which I perceive very visually, like painting with an infinite
spectrum of musical shades. Then it can finally come alive.
Of course this is a score for an adventure film. I admire
classical orchestral scores for adventure films despite their
complexity and grandeur – or perhaps precisely because of
that. My score approaches the subject in its (or my) own
unique way, but still it is a “many notes” score. I, however,
believe there are “just as many notes as are required”, to
quote Mozart’s statement in the famous scene from Milos
Forman’s Amadeus."
"When it comes to the music I compose for silent films, I believe
both in its independent existence and musical invention, as
well as in its meticulous and profound dialogue with the film
itself. So how can the two co-exist? “Distant closeness” is
an expression I’m particularly fond of in this context: just
the right measure of closeness and just the right measure
of apparent distance in the music. By “apparent distance”
I mean that the music is close to the film in a different
way. Perhaps it evokes memories, perhaps it interprets,
perhaps it focuses more on what the film conveys between
the lines … All with the aim of co-existing with the film in a
unified artistic experience." – Andrej Goričar
AA: The opening night of Le Giornate offered a revival of a big hit film of one of our greatest heroes, complete with a rousing score, newly written for the relaunch. We had great fun in the humoristic swashbuckler, a genre largely launched for the cinema by Douglas Fairbanks himself with his unique irreverent and goofy panache, paving the way for the future bravado of Errol Flynn and Jackie Chan. The action is cinematic, and the heroes have a self-deprecating demeanour in the whole shebang.
The Mark of Zorro (1920) we saw in Pordenone 11 years ago. In it, Douglas Fairbanks already played a double role. His daytime character was the effete Don Diego Vega. In the nighttime he transformed into the intrepid Zorro. In the finale he changed from the first into the second without even needing a superhero costume anymore. "He fights like Zorro"... "and I love like Zorro".
In Don Q, Son of Zorro, there is again a double role. Fairbanks still plays the original Zorro, and now also his own son, Don Q. Sent from California to Spain to complete his education, Don Q becomes entangled in vicious intrigue. He must even stage a breathtaking suicide to avoid a death sentence. It is a childish story and slightly boring. Well cast, it is a pleasure to meet in the female lead Mary Astor, already a Hollywood veteran, although she was only 19 years old.
"Les héros sont fatigués" is an intriguing concept. Fairbanks was over 40 years old, and in The Iron Mask (US 1929) he bravely incarnated an ageing D'Artagnan. It has my favourite end title. Instead of The End it says: The Beginning. The Iron Mask is a masterpiece, but in Don Q, Son of Zorro, Fairbanks has not yet solved the art of the sequel.
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