His vocal risk-taking, as in the endlessly reiterated scene where he speaks to Roxane (Parsons) as Christian (William Prince) from beneath her balcony, is more enjoyable. Ferrer does not shine in these moments, although thereвЂ™s some question in my mind if thatвЂ™s actually Ferrer fighting off the men on RagueneauвЂ™s behalf.

The film takes care to show us CyranoвЂ™s prowess as a swordsman and brawler, adding in some sword fights where the play restricts itself to a modest curtain these are meant to be exciting, one imagines, although even in 1950 one has seen a hundred filmic duels. On the whole CyranoвЂ™s risk-taking is exciting, and itвЂ™s part of what makes him exciting to watch. Perhaps we wish that heвЂ™d take Le BretвЂ™s help when itвЂ™s offered, as when the baker Ragueneau (Lloyd Corrigan) gets himself in trouble with de Guiche, is threatened by a dozen armed men, and comes to Cyrano for assistance. ItвЂ™s hard not to sympathize with Cyrano, who is so aggressively his own man in an age where everyone is very publicly owned by someone else. Should I eat a toad every day? Cyrano asks him? Should I prefer a visit to a courtier to a poem? Should I crawl on my belly for these people? вЂњNo, thank you!вЂќ he says, вЂњNo, I thank you! And again, I thank you!вЂќ The Comte de Guiche (Clanton), nephew to a nameless cardinal with a suspicious resemblance to Richelieu, is the type of insufferable, spineless, and privileged man who Cyrano would presumably be eating toads for. Cyrano is noted for ardent words no matter what the topic, but of all the deliveries Ferrer packages in this film, I think I prefer his response to Le Bret (Morris Carnovsky), his best friend and most frequently ignored guardian angel. In an age where any artist or poet or playwright has a patron who pays him for the price of altering little things here and there, Cyrano lives entirely off his salary as a soldier. One wishes that he would, for example, not go out of his way to antagonize people on the other hand, watching him struggle to stand up as he fights off Death with his sword is far more powerful than that description gives it credit for. His nose is an objective correlative for his pride, which is also in-your-face and a little off-putting in practice.

Cyrano is a renaissance man, whose pen might be mightier than his sword, but on the other hand not so fast. He is a superlative Cyrano, someone who is so fascinating and endearing that we start to forget about the nose after a while. His acting is dramatic вЂ“ we might say вЂњhistrionicвЂќ now вЂ“ and for Cyrano, a role he had played before and would later direct himself in on stage, thatвЂ™s perfect. Ferrer, like Laurence Olivier, was a man of the theater much more than a screen actor. Something about it does not translate well to film, which puts it in pretty good company: Death of a Salesman, The Glass Menagerie, Les Miserables, Equus, etc.)ДЇerrer certainly does his best to alleviate the slushy mess. In other words, straight adaptation is tough, and thereвЂ™s a reason the Steve Martin vehicle Roxanne is such a delight where Cyrano de Bergerac can be sort of a slog. The plot itself turns, a little surprisingly, on a war between the French and Spanish, and then ends in another short act fifteen years after the first scene at the theater. They are like reflecting pools for Cyrano, who lives to imprint himself on everyone he meets in one way or another. Roxane and Christian, his beloved cousin and his romantic ally and rival, respectively, are not interesting people. (The reign of Louis XIII is not discussed with much fervor in the average high school world history course.) The hero is renowned for his swordplay but is given much more room in the play to use his words as a weapon of war or of love. The play itself is filled with monologues and excessively verbose language as well as a setting which, to most American viewers then as now, is completely arcane.

The 1950 edition is sad proof of that difficulty. Starring Jose Ferrer, Ralph Clanton, Mala ParsonsД¬yrano de Bergerac is a really tricky play to adapt, more or less as is, from stage to screen.

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