Review of Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) by Shad M — 27 Oct 2006

The Ferrer magic continues. Or, pretty much, starts. This wasn't his first acting role, but pretty close--and one that predates it is an episode of [i]The Philco Television Playhouse[/i] wherein he plays, well, Cyrano de Bergerac.

And then there's the updated version. It was made back before Steve Martin was such a total whore who would play any script he got sent. (Sorry, Steve. I love you, but it seems true. Don't get me started on [i]Cheaper by the Dozen[/i]!) You will note I rank it equally with what is considered pretty much the best [i]Cyrano[/i] of all time.

And it is an excellent performance. Abridged, of course, but I suspect the only reason I can tell is that I've read the play so many bloody times. And it nearly made me cry--I'm almost crying yet. Cyrano's noble yet still stupid sacrifice gets me every time. Also, I totally believe that he can cross swords with what seems like half the Spanish army and yet come out slightly wounded.

The classic moment in both movies is, of course, the insult game, from which we take our title. (It's Steve Martin's "complimentary" insult, and ends, "to give them this to perch on.") Obviously, Steve Martin's version is just a tad updated--they didn't have Earl Scheib offering to paint people's cars in 17th Century Paris--but his whole film is updated; that's kind of the point.

The one updating bit I truly, deeply love above the rest is that Roxanne has something to do--she's an astronomer, which ties in so well with Cyrano's "trip to the Moon." (Cyrano, who died not yet 40, wrote a book on the subject--yes, he was a real person. No, I don't know how accurate the story is.).

I could frankly have done without the huge freakin' cross in the last scene of [i]Cyrano[/i]. Not subtle. We get it. Jose Ferrer made great sacrifices. Do we really need the Christ metaphor driven into our heads like that?

In the end, these are both great movies--and if you watch them both, you can see the subtle similarities between them, in addition to the big, obvious ones.