Frenchman, Swordsman, Poet and Lover

A classic tragic romance story that has been told over and over again in various forms, the 1950 film Cyrano de Bergerac brings to life the character's of French author Edmond Rostand's novel of the same name. We all know Cyrano as the man caught in a famous love triangle, a lot of which results from his embarrasment over his even more famous nose. The film is public domain and those who would like to view it can do so here, thanks to Classic Cinema Online and Google.

The film stars José Ferrer as the hero, Cyrano, who is a famed swordsman and poet who is in love with the beautiful and much admired Roxane (Mala Powers ). Because of his long, odd shaped nose, Cyrano is too ashamed and self-concious to declare his love for Roxane out of fear of rejection. Roxane is in love with the handsome but pretty dense Christian de Neuvillette (William Prince), devastating Cyrano. When Christian comes to Cyrano, asking him to help win Roxane with his dramatic tongue, and Cyrano faciliates their romance, despite his love for Roxane. Meanwhile, Cyrano's enemy Comte De Guiche (Ralph Canton ) is also wooing Roxane. Cyrano provides room for Christian and Roxane to elope. When the Comte hears, he forces Christian to join the army in the war against the Spanish. Roxane goes to the camp and tells Christian it was his wonderful words he fell in love with and Christian is heartbroken, knowing the words were Cyrano and not his own. He does not get a chance to confess this to her and it is up to Cyrano to confess everything and tell Roxane of his love. But will he be too late?

Ferrer won the Best Actor Academy Award for his performance in this film, though the film itself was not universally liked by critics. The role of Cyrano de Bergerac became the defining role of Ferrer's career. It has been estimated that the plastic nose Ferrer wore for the role cost United Artists $1,500 at the time to make. While producing this film, Stanley Kramer was having trouble getting another pet project produced, a film known as High Noon. The writers tried to keep the film as close to the book as possible, which is hard in trimming an epic novel down to a nearly two hour long movie.

For some reviews of this film, you can check out this one done by Turner Classic Movies. You can read this review from bestcyrano.org or this one from the Gold Old Movie Reviews blogspot. Another review can be found here at the Exporer of the Unknown blogspot.