Thoughts on ZORRO, Part 9: Select foreign productions (spoilers)

There have been many foreign Zorro movies and shows over the decades, only a handful of which are easy to find on streaming, and most of which are major departures from the traditional version of the character. So I’m going to limit myself to just a few of the more available and relatively faithful ones. First off is the 1975 Spaghetti Western Zorro, starring French actor Alain Delon, written by Giorgio Arlorio, and directed by Duccio Tessari. It’s available on various ad-supported streamers such as Tubi. Though an Italian production initially released in Europe, it’s an English-language film, the kind with European actors phonetically delivering English dialogue (translated by Richard Walter) and voice actors then dubbing over their performances. Delon’s Diego Vega is a very different take on the character, a hardened mercenary skeptical of the ideals of his friend Don Miguel de la Serna (Marino Masé), who’s been appointed governor of Nuevo Aragón (apparently somewhere in northern…