Don Q – Son of Zorro

Written by: Jack Cunningham, based on a novel by Kate and Hesketh Prichard
Director of Photography: Henry Sharp
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Astor, Jack McDonald, Donald Crisp, Jean Hersholt, Lottie Pickford
Production: Douglas Fairbanks for Elton Corporation / United Artists 

The Slovenian premiere of Andrej Goričar’s new musical score, which will receive its world premiere as the opening event of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival in October 2026.

Don Q, Son of Zorro was made at the height of Douglas Fairbanks’s career. Alongside Mary Pickford and Charles Chaplin, he was one of the most celebrated icons of silent cinema. At the time, Fairbanks chose his own subjects and personally selected the screenwriters and directors for the films he produced.

The protagonist of Fairbanks’s signature adventure romance is Don Cesar de Vega, the son of the Californian swordsman Zorro – a swaggering, loud-mouthed master of the whip. He is portrayed with great wit by Fairbanks, one of the most charismatic and enduring figures of American silent cinema.

The story is set in Spain, where Don Cesar, during a visit to the royal court, impresses both the Spanish nobility and a visiting Austrian Archduke. However, he soon falls from favour when a local officer – who is also his rival for the hand of the young Spanish aristocrat Dolores (played by the young Mary Astor) – frames him for the Archduke’s murder.