Judging from the vintage of this swashbuckler, the Hollywood studio which produced it (Columbia), the two leads that star in it (John Derek and Anthony Quinn) and its director, I was negatively surprised by quite a few things in hindsight: it only received a measly ** rating on Leonard Maltin's Film Guide, is not mentioned at all on Leslie Halliwell's and the few reviews I read linked via IMDb were also equally dismissive; for a movie from this genre, it was one humourless ride with a glum hero and a dreary villain (awkwardly named Viovanni!!); having just watched both THE SWORD OF MONTE CRISTO (released a few months prior to this by Twentieth Century Fox) and the rare 1935 RKO version of THE THREE MUSKETEERS, I was struck by how awfully similar it was to the former in plot and to the latter in its music ("The Musketeers' Song" is recognizably riffed on for the main theme here)!! Although the original Count of Monte Cristo does have a tenuous bearing on the narrative, it is never explained how he came to settle in the Italian seaside community of Casamare and eventually bequeath his famed sword (yet again!) to the townspeople and to whom they erected a statue riding a horse(!) in return; similarly, had this likewise emanated from RKO, it would have made sense (sort of) for composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco to pilfer Max Steiner's original score…but, as I said earlier, this came from the "Torch Lady" studio! For what it is worth, the similarly-titled exotic adventure MARK OF THE RENEGADE released that same year was an unrelated but somewhat superior excursion for Ricardo Montalban…Anyway, I do not want to give the wrong impression that this is a worthless addition to the stables of costumed adventures or "Monte Cristo" offshoots. Indeed, the fact that it was shot in Technicolor makes it a pictorially pleasing period piece, there are the expected plethora of treacherous intrigue, wrongful imprisonment and heroic impersonations that will ultimately be resolved in night-time horse chases and clumsy swordfights; having said that, the TCM-sourced print was sometimes too dark to fully appreciate them (again, I was surprised to find no official home video release of it so far)! For all its namedropping of the wealthy count, the clear template (apart from the aforementioned SWORD) was apparently Zorro since returning soldier Derek, finding his father branded a traitor and a suicide, feigns injury (after being beaten up by the angry townsfolk) and spends most of the time – in the lion's den, as it were – as a houseguest of decorated military leader Quinn's reading and playing chess! In the meantime, both Derek and his childhood sweetheart Jody Lawrance (on whom Quinn, needless to say, has his own romantic designs) roam the countryside righting wrongs and pinning poorly-rhyming accusatory messages around town! Quinn's acolytes include wily adviser Arnold Moss (who gets his comeuppance from his own increasingly impatient boss when caught going over his secret documents) and fraidy-cat art dealer Ian Wolfe (who is also the courier of coded messages from and to the Austrian invaders); on the side of Good, aiding the two alternating masked riders (dubbed "The Ghost of Monte Cristo" – with Derek effecting a ludicrous 'foreign' accent to hide his identity…almost 55 years before Christian Bale would adopt a gruff voice when Bruce Wayne dons the Batman costume!) are the girl's fencing master uncle (named simply "Zio"!), an orphaned student of the latter's and a street- smart brat. Two final bits of trivia concern the leading man: almost four decades later, Derek would pair Quinn with his star/wife Bo Derek in his own directorial swan-song GHOSTS CAN'T DO IT (1989); I currently have another three costumers of his in my unwatched pile…including two "made in Italy"!

At one time actor John Derek appeared to have a very promising career in films after appearing in various supporting roles in such quality films as "Knock On Any Door" (1949) and "All The Kings Men" (1949). These films afforded him the opportunity to portray character roles that focused on a range of expressions, emotions and flaws of the character he was playing. It wasn't too long after these initial successes that he soon became a "star/leading man" in films like "Rogues of Sherwood Forrest"(1950) and "Mask of the Avenger" (1951). Obviously, the studios were trying to cash in on Derek's good looks, and were trying to make him the next Errol Flynn or Tyrone Power. Unfortunately for Derek, films like "Mask of the Avenger" paled in comparison to films such as "Mark of Zorro" and "Adventures of Robin Hood". Even the talented Anthony Quinn, who had just returned from a long successful run on Broadway as Stanley Kowalski in "Streetcar Named Desire" could not save this Saturday matinée turkey. It would be unfair to blame John Derek for this film's failings. Personally, I blame the people who adapted the Alexander Dumas novel (Ralph Gilbert Bettison, George Bruce,Jesse Lasky, Phillip MacDonald). Perhaps it was a case of "too many cooks spoil the broth." The writers not only seemed to have difficulty with the films wooden and lifeless dialog, but also in deciding who the real hero was. In fact, when Derek (Capt. Renato Dimorna)is fighting Quinn (Viovanni Larocca) he loses his sword and is temporarily relieved by his girlfriend Jody Lawrence (Maria d'Orsini)in a manner similar to a low budget tag team wrestling match. Consequently, it was films like this that eventually drove Derek out of Hollywood, and relegated him to the real life role of husband and photographer of some of the screens most beautiful women.... Ursula Andress, Linda Evans, and Bo Derek. To this day, I believe John Derek had the talent to be a leading actor but because of his "pretty face" he became a stereotype to "B" swashbucklers to which he was not suited.

Italy in 1848 is the setting for MASK OF THE AVENGER, which borrows heavily from every Zorro-like swashbuckler or "Count of Monte Cristo" film ever made. Columbia's fledgling stars, JOHN DEREK and JODY LAWRENCE play the romantic leads with ANTHONY QUINN lending his presence to a colorful supporting role. He was on the verge of his own big-time stardom.Derek is the masked aristocrat who must engage in swordplay with military tyrant Quinn. Although given Technicolor and some appropriate sets, it has the look of a second-rate epic indistinguishable from a dozen other such stories.Nor is it any help that JODY LAWRENCE is a strictly one-note actress who brings nothing but a pretty face to her role as the lovely heroine.JOHN DEREK fares slightly better but it's no more than a cardboard, by-the-numbers sort of adventure done countless times in more inventive ways. This one stirs up only a moderate amount of interest and can be easily forgotten.Obviously designed to give Derek's teen-age fans a thrill since he gets solo billing over the title.

It's a pretty good movie, with swordplay, secrets, murder, and horseback riding...reminiscent of the old Zorro movies. There's a bit of romance, too. Good over all.