Fifty years A.Z. (after Zorro,) Don Diego Vega (George Hamilton,) son of the legendary masked swordsman who defended old California's peasants from tyrannical landowners, is at home in Madrid, Spain. As he clashes swords with a conquest's jealous husband and brothers, his trusty mute sidekick Paco (Donovan Scott) arrives with a message: Vega's father is calling him back to his California birthplace. By the time he arrives, his father has died. But there is a letter, in which his father explains that it is the destiny of the Vega men to become Zorro. The cape, the hat, and the sword are now his.
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Vega's boyhood amigo, Captain Esteban (Ron Leibman) has married the girl they once competed for, Florinda (Brenda Vaccaro,) and is now taking over as the oppressive and dictatorial Alcalde. One thorn in his side is Charlotte Taylor Wilson (Lauren Hutton,) a beautiful activist determined to rally the peasants to rebellion. The other is Zorro. The new Zorro debuts with a horsechase and swordfight with the tax collector. He defends Charlotte from being escorted away for speechmaking outside a costume ball, and, on the dance floor, slices the Alcalde's pants. Then he leaps from the balcony! - badly. His injury will keep him from fighting Esteban's "reign of terror" for a month.
Miraculously, Vega's long-lost brother returns from the British navy, where their father sent him to be made more of a man. Ramon, a.k.a. Bunny Wigglesworth (also Hamilton) dyes his blonde curls black and takes up the cause. But in place of the sword and drab black costume, he brandishes a wicked whip and sports a multicolored wardrobe, replete with natty, fringed hats.
The Alcalde threatens shoot a peasant a day unless Zorro surrenders. He tries to lure the masked hero by draping Florinda in jewels at a ball; then by putting Charlotte in front of a firing squad.
The review of this Movie prepared by vjm
