Review – Zorro, The Gay Blade

Ah, once upon a time portrayal of stereotypical, effeminate male characters was a much less dicey affair. The interesting thing about this particular parade of “poof” jokes is that it still kinda holds up. To be sure, this isn’t a great masterpiece of intellectual comedy. George Hamilton plays not one but two roles, and that alone should give you some idea of the caliber of humor you can expect. He plays both a traditional Latin Lothario who inherits the mantle of Zorro, defender of the poor, and his twin brother, a character named Bunny Wigglesworth who has apparently spent too many years in the English Navy. The latter must step flamboyantly into the Zorro role when the former injures his ankle. Most – well, okay, all – of the jokes are sophomoric at best, and one might expect that such a broad caricature of a homosexual character would prove uncomfortably offensive by more modern standards. But Bunny isn’t just a fop, he’s also the hero. The message – to the extent that such a piece of brain candy can be said to have one at all – seems to be that it’s possible to be heroic without conforming to the usual social expectations of ultra-masculine heroes. That may seem like kind of a given now, but back then it was at least a small-scale breakthrough. Mildly amusing