A Modern Musketeer

Douglas Fairbanks was the first action hero of the movies, but this collection spotlights the comic side of the swashbuckling superstar with eleven films spanning the years 1916-1921. The 1920 "The Mark of Zorro" is the Fairbanks of the twenties, the ebullient swashbuckler with a zesty smile and an acrobatic flair, but in the teens, Fairbanks was a modern guy with a physical exuberance that balanced acrobatics with comedy. "A Modern Musketeer" (1917) spotlights his modern day chivalry and anticipates his future costume romps in a flamboyant prologue and "When The Clouds Roll By" is a romantic comedy with a bizarre psychological twist and a deliriously lovely dream sequence that anticipates Jean Vigo. The set also features "His Picture In The Papers," "Flirting With Fate," "The Matrimaniac," "Wild and Woolly," "Reaching for the Moon," " The Mollycoddle," "The Nut," and the truly surreal 1916 short detective farce "The Mystery of the Leaping Fish," all with original music scores. Five discs in a box set of five thinpak cases, plus a booklet with an essay.