Zorro the Gay Blade

This 'affectionate parody' of the swashbuckling Zorro myth is so determinedly amiable that one feels distinctly caddish for regretting that the laughs are not even more frequent. It fails only in that Leibman's villain shouts too much, and that the set pieces, the skeleton of most film comedy, are under-considered. The simple idea, for example, of every male guest at a masked ball turning up disguised as Zorro, making the villain's task of identifying the real one trickier than he expected, is almost hysterically thrown away: the scene is just good enough to make it doubly frustrating. This said, Hamilton's hamming is a delight rather than an annoyance, the sets and stuntwork well achieved.