Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)

*Spoiler/plot- Cyrano De Bergerac, 1950. A famous soldier during France's classic era tries to better himself and help a friend to court a classic lady of the court with some strange success.*Special Stars- Jose Ferrer.*Theme- Helping others will also benefit yourself.*Trivia/location/goofs- Black & White feature film.*Emotion- A wonderful heroic classic adventure story that teaches us a moral for life. The performances are legendary and this project Made Jose Ferrer a leading star in Hollywood.*Based on- French famous literature story.

Jose Ferrer became probably the most UN-deserved recipient of an Oscar in film history when he was presented with an Academy Award for 'best actor' in this drab filming of Edmond Rostand's wonderful play, 'Cyrano de Bergerac'.Ferrer's bombastically loud voice and tediously self-conscious acting destroys this little undertaking as soon as it gets started. Ferrer aggressively spits all of his dialogue while he poses and postures in defeatism to the lavish costumes and extravagance of Rostand's piece. Mala Powers plays Roxanne with a bit more subtlety, but she fails to impress in any way.There are some rather clueless people out there who feel that Ferrer's performance was "brilliant". Anyone who thinks that knows absolutely nothing about acting.

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.

Enjoyed this great 1950 performance by Jose Ferrer who won an Academy Award for Best Actor for this role and he sure put his heart and soul into his role. Cyrano De Bergerac was a very smart man with great talent in fighting with a sword, a poet, actor and a man who desperately need a woman to love and marry. Cyrano De Bergerac acted like a Douglas Fairbanks Sr., jumping all around and killing large numbers of people who wanted to insult him and his friends. Cyrano falls in love with his cousin who is very attractive and he even helps her find a lover and actually acts as cupid. I thought that Cyrano's nose was very attractive and much bigger than Jimmy Durante.