I often enjoy reading novel adaptations of films to compare what was either left in from the original script before filming, or to see what the author added to give the two-hour film depth and backstory. Unfortunately, the only thing that never really makes it from the film Zorro, the Gay Blade and its novelization is the humor. This isn't really a knock against the author, Les Dean (although I do question the addition of the novel's reincarnation-themed prologue, and can only forgive it if it was in fact part of the original screenplay), but rather the harsh reality of an impossible task. Zorro, the Gay Blade is a film that gains the majority of its laughs from the over-the-top performances of it's man actors, George Hamilton and Ron Leibman (and to a lesser extent - for reasons explained in a moment, Lauren Hutton and Brenda Vaccaro). This could be said of most films, but in this case, much of the humor is derived from over-exaggerated mispronunciations of George Hamilton's Don Diego Vega character in his thick Spanish accent. It's silly, juvenile humor, but it's humor that works for the film. Unfortunately, the same humor falls flat in print, especially when adapted from a screenplay obviously written to show the actors what they should sound like they are saying, but not what they are actually saying. So, when in the book Don Diego Vega talks about the "ships in the field," we don't hear the thick accent that George Hamilton uses as he actually says sheeps so it sounds like ships. It's not clever wordplay, and it doesn't stand alone without the performance to drive it. The humor of the film is lost in translation, so to speak, and in Dean's defense, it would have been lost regardless of the translator. ( )