Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Nonureva Really Surprised!

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

ElMaruecan82 Michael Gordon's "Cyrano de Bergerac" was a pleasant experience as long as it was carried by the flamboyant eloquence and thunderous voice of actor Jose Ferrer, which means a good portion of the film. But Edmond Rostand's iconic play isn't just the tale of a poet and a fighter, it is also an iconic romance, the story of a magnificent love triangle, where the looks of a man, and the wits of another create the perfect suitor for the heart of Roxane who's not a bland heroine either.But Jose Ferrer, who won the Oscar for that role (and it was the only nomination) was good, too good, so good he made any role thankless. Young but witless Christian (William Prince) and the beautiful Roxane (Mala Powers) are unfortunately no match for Ferrer who owns the show whenever he appears. It's all natural when it comes to Cyrano who is a larger-than-life character (let alone the scenery) but the irony of the story lies on the way Cyrano must keep a low profile, to allow the romance between Roxanne and Christian to blossom.Cyrano provides the good lines to Christian and consoles himself by the way she's truly conquered by the power of her love, it's as if she still loved a part of her doomed cousin. This is love by proxy, but the power is left intact and you can tell from the emotional involvement of Cyrano that he's accept his fate as half a doom, half a blessing. But Jose Ferrer is such a presence that the film's level of excitement inevitable fades where he's not there. His "nose" is so big it overshadows any other flaws. And reality joined fiction at the Oscar ceremony.Ferrer wasn't even present at the ceremony but his voice was enough, you could tell it was Cyrano winning, and it's only fair that the other iconic performance of Cyrano de Bergerac, by Gérard Depardieu, won a similar award. Cyrano de Bergerac is just a daydream of any actor but not any actor can pull such powerful, over-the-top yet exhilarating performances. Ferrer does a magnificent job but even his performance can't make up for the rather, bland theatrical look, more apparent at the beginning, but the blurry black and white cinematography gives it the look of the TV movies we watched in little side.The sword fights choreographs are actually very convincing and you could really hear the crossing of irons, but there are moments though that betrayed some low budget aspect and it doesn't really help to enhance the enjoyment of the story. One could think that the French version, considered now as the classic one did the film a disservice, in fact, it didn't, one could watch it with more forgiving eyes. And it's a fair adaptation of Rostand's play but it needed a bigger budget and maybe a French version after all. The last line about the "panache" has been translated by "white plum", and I humbly believed it was a mistake, Cyrano has always been about a sword, a big nose, and a panache. But not in the meaning of a white plume.

richard-1787 I would love to say that this is a great movie. It isn't, not by a long shot. Made on a skimpy budget with largely second-rate actors, this movie very seldom rises to the magnificence of one of the truly great masterpieces of French theater.Except when José Ferrer is playing Cyrano. He is not, in my opinion, as good as Gérald Depardieu, but very often he takes a fusty old translation and makes it live. Had the adaptation of the play been better, i.e., had Cyrano been given more of his lines and in a better translation, I'm sure that Ferrer would have shone even more. As it is, he is the one shining star in this otherwise very mediocre production of a true masterpiece. Make sure you see the Depardieu movie, which is glorious. Make sure you don't see the Kevin Kline New York theater production, which is leaden. But if you can appreciate a movie for one stellar performance, watch this as well. Ferrer deserved a better script and a better production, but he does a very fine job with what he's dealt here.

theowinthrop It is curious that in the period that England, Scandanavia, and Russia pushed for more reality in their drama France went into a different direction. She produced two still living dramatists: Georges Feydeau the great constructor of farces, and Edmond Rostand, the last really impressive dramatic romanticist. Rostand was to write two plays that became international favorites. One was L'ANGLON ("The Eaglet"), a play about as Napoleon II, only legitimate son of Emperor Napoleon I of France. That play follows his attempt to escape the clutches of the Chancellor of Austria, Metternich, to reclaim his throne. That play was the last great role (and greatest "trouser part") of Sarah Bernhart. Because the Divine Sarah made it her favorite role L'ANGLON is rarely shown. However, a sequence from that play has appeared in one of the Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney films, when the youngsters are in a deserted old theater and pretend to be stars of the past. Garland as Bernhard recites the speech of Napoleon II (in French!) at the battlefield of Waterloo where he repeats the great victories of his father.Interestingly enough, Rooney in the same film portrayed Richard Mansfield in his performance as "Cyrano de Bergerac". He does a snippet of one of the play's high-points - the duel where Cyrano is constructing a poem that ends each verse with the words "thrust home!", until he ends the duel and the poem with the physical action against his foe matching the words.Rostand's CYRANO DE BERGERAC is constantly revived, as a tragic comedy about a great poet and swordsman/soldier, who was independent of the patronage game of the aristocracy of his time. Cyrano is fully honest, and fully prepared to criticize the hypocrisies of his days, and can protect himself due to his swordsmanship. However, he also suffers from a physical problem. He has a magnificently big nose. His swordsmanship makes it fully possible for him to confront anyone making fun of his nose: that was behind the opening duel regarding "thrust home". However, he is aware he is ugly, and it prevents him from being brave enough to offer his heart to his beloved cousin Roxane. As the play continues he learns that a new Gascon recruit in his regiment Christian de Neuvilette is the secret love of Roxane, and she asks Cyrano's assistance in getting Christian's attention about this. As it turns out Christian is equally in love with her. Christian is a brave and good looking young fellow, but he is tongue tied. The result is that Cyrano ghost writes a series of letters to Roxane (supposedly by Christian) that cements her affection for him. Cyrano's assistance eventually leads to another memorable highpoint in the play where he takes over in a moonlit garden for the nervous Christian, and serenades Roxane's ears (she is on her terrace) with his poetry, supposedly recited and created by Christian. Reading a description of the play (of any play) hardly prepares the viewer for it's stage effect. Let us just say if you have never seen this play, catch this film version, or the French one with Gerald Depardieu made in 1990. It is bittersweet, for we realize that with the growing success of Cyrano's ghosting for Christian, he is torn further and further away from ever getting Roxane from noticing him. Only at the tale end of the play, when it is too late, does the truth dawn on Roxane.In 1947 Jose Ferrer was appearing on Broadway in Cyrano de Bergerac. Ferrer was the first major star on Broadway of Puerto Rican ancestry, and proved adept at acting (he was Iago to Paul Robeson's OTHELLO), comic parts (he did a great job in a revival of CHARLEY'S AUNT), and directing. In fact, the character of "Geoffrey De Cordova" (Jack Buchanan) in the musical film THE BAND WAGON is based in part on Ferrer (also in part on Orson Welles). He dominated his production of CYRANO, and was signed to appear in the movie version in 1950. Thus we are lucky enough to see him on film recreating his stage performance. Ferrer did not overact - he seemed to instinctively know how to control that tendency by stage performers on camera. As a result he fit the cinema screen perfectly. His moments of bravura acting (as when he confronts and befuddles a rival in a dark garden by pretending he has just fallen from the moon) are neatly balanced when he realizes what he just can't get from Roxane.The others performers are not unknown types. Christian was played by William Prince (later "Young Dr. Malone" on television). Cyrano's more worldly wise friend Le Bret is Morris Carnovsky, who had a distinguished career on stage and on screen. Lloyd Corrigan played the cowardly Ragueneau (the pastry cook/poet) who feeds Cyrano and his friends, and witnesses the sequence where Cyrano beats back a set of armed thugs sent to attack the pastry cook. Mala Powers was Roxane. Even in the brief part of Cardinal Richelieu Edgar Barrier played that role (secretly admiring the swordsman who keeps sneering at him). But it is the central role that makes this play and film, and in the capable hands of Ferrer it was done well. It should have been a color film (which is why I have only given it a "9" instead of a "10"), but that doesn't weaken the film at all. Two years before Laurence Olivier won an "Oscar" as best actor for his HAMLET - really the first time a classic play role got the honor from the Academy. In 1950 the Academy gave the best actor "Oscar" to Ferrer, for the second classic play role on film, as well as the first Puerto Rican actor so honored.

jotix100 Almost never shown these days, "Cyrano de Bergerac", one of the best films of 1950, turned up the other night unexpectedly on a cable channel. It was a pleasure to see it again after so many years since we first saw it. Michael Gordon directed the screen version that became a favorite of people who were delighted to make concessions to a man that was far from being endowed with any physical attributes.The enjoyment of the picture is due to the amazing tour de force by that wonderful actor, Jose Ferrer, a man whose friendship we cherished because he enriched our life with his honesty, frankness and charisma. Mr. Ferrer's contribution to the stage and screen can be best sampled as we watch him become Cyrano, a man in love with his cousin Roxanne, whose great fear is the possible rejection of the beautiful young woman in favor of the handsome, and younger, Christian.This beloved theater play by Edmond Rostand had been translated by Brian Hooker, in what became the most familiar way American audiences met the illustrious French author. The screen play by Carl Foreman clarifies the text in ways that the movie going public of that era could relate to this man whose wit and charm outweighed his appearance, which was dominated by a big nose that rendered him an unattractive man. The poetry of the play is preserved even though it is not done in verse like the original manuscript. Dimitri Tiomkin's score lent itself to the action.Mala Powers was a disappointment though. Yes, she was a beauty, but her Roxanne doesn't quite come across; she is at a disadvantage playing opposite an icon of the theater like Mr. Ferrer, who certainly had more experience. William Prince does a fair job as Christian. Morris Carnovsky, another great stage actor, appears as Le Bret and Ralph Clanton makes his contribution with his take of Guiche."Cyrano de Bergerac" is recommended to movie fans of all ages to watch the magnificent Jose Ferrer at his best.