After the old king has died, his succession will fall either upon his
benign niece Isabella (Maria Grazina Spina) or his malevolent niece Malva
(Moira Orfei) - and since Malva is sure that the king has chosen Isabella
over her, she is determined to get his will - which has to be shipped to
the palace from, well, somewhere - and forge it in her favour ... and to
that end, she and her treacherous fiancé Garcia (Massimo Serato) hire
Maciste (Alan Steel), a notorious do-gooder whom they easily trick into
believing Malva has been wronged. Thing is, without even knowing it,
Isabella has Zorro on her side, who is really mild-mannered poet Ramon
(Pierre Brice), her fiancé. From here on, Zorro and Maciste trick each
other numerous times, and take the king's will from one another
frequently, while at the same time having to fight all kinds of outlaws
... and ultimately, Maciste gets his hands on the will, but as he is to
deliver it to Malva, he is warned by Carmencita (Rosy De Leo), Isabella's
maid he has a soft spot for, of his employer ... and he stashes the
document away just before being tricked. It is only now that Zorro and
Maciste see the righteousness of one another, but by now, Malva has
already seen to it that Isabella got arrested and the noblemen of the
court do her bidding and crown her queen. Zorro and Maciste stop the
coronation just in time though, put a few things right, and while the
baddies get their just desserts, the heroes get their girls, Isabella and
Carmencita, respectively. What a silly little film, a very
clumsy attempt to combine the Zorro- and Maciste-myths
in some fantasy kingdom outside of time and space (ok, not outside of
space, that's an exaggeration) - and its cheaply made, too, probably the
shoddiest looking period piece made by director Umberto Lenzi in the
early-to-mid-1960's ... and yet the film manages to be quite charming in
its naivity despite (or even because of) everything, an extremely
simplistic yet likeable adventure yarn that you might find easy to enjoy
if you're still in touch with your inner child ... Oh, and while Alan
Steel is adequate in his role but nothing special (though he turns out to
be one of the better Maciste actors), Pierre Brice is
pretty amusing as Ramon/Zorro.
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