Cyrano de Bergerac (1950): watch the full film free, legally

A poet swordsman in seventeenth-century Paris

Michael Gordon directed this 1950 American adventure-romance, produced by Stanley Kramer and based on Edmond Rostand’s 1897 French alexandrine drama. The screenplay used poet Brian Hooker’s 1923 English blank-verse translation. It was the first English-language film version of Rostand’s play, after adaptations in other languages. José Ferrer plays Cyrano de Bergerac, a poet and master swordsman whose wit and conspicuous nose shape his reputation and his hopes for love.

In seventeenth-century Paris, Cyrano stops a play because he has banned its principal actor, Montfleury, from the stage for a month. Vicomte de Valvert insults Cyrano’s nose and provokes a duel. Cyrano composes and recites a ballade while fighting, then fatally stabs Valvert on its last line. His friend Le Bret warns him that Valvert’s friends are powerful enemies. Cyrano instead admits that he is troubled by his love for his cousin Roxane, convinced that his appearance makes romance impossible.

Roxane asks to see Cyrano, but before he can tell her his feelings, she says she loves guardsman Christian de Neuvillette, though she has never spoken with him. Cyrano agrees to help her. Christian is equally taken with Roxane, but lacks the words to court her. Cyrano writes Christian’s letters, which Roxane finds irresistible. When Christian fails to win her back after an awkward meeting, Cyrano hides beneath her balcony, imitates Christian’s voice, and speaks so eloquently that Roxane’s heart is won for Christian.

Comte De Guiche also wants Roxane. Cyrano delays him when he pressures her to marry him, giving Roxane time to wed Christian. Furious, De Guiche, Christian’s commander, immediately orders him to war against Spain. Cyrano joins the unit and sends Roxane letters from the field in Christian’s name. Roxane arrives at the camp and explains that the letters have made her love Christian for his words rather than his looks.

Thirty days and two noses a day

Ferrer had played Cyrano on Broadway and portrayed the character on The Philco Television Playhouse on January 23, 1949. Ralph Clanton had appeared with him in the 1946 Broadway revival in the same role he plays in the film. Elizabeth Taylor was Stanley Kramer’s first choice for Roxane, but she was unavailable. Arlene Dahl was also considered before Mala Powers received the role in May 1950. Charles Laughton was considered for Montfleury.

The production was planned for a 30-day shooting schedule, preceded by 10 days of full set rehearsal. Production designer Rudolph Sternad made mobile sets on wheels that could be moved with minimal effort. The innovation cut the studio space needed in half and reduced the time required to set up new scenes. Although a similar method had been used on television programs, it had not been used for a motion picture of Cyrano de Bergerac’s scale and complexity.

Gordon collected photographs of earlier actors who had portrayed Cyrano to accurately depict the character’s nose. Plastic surgeon Harold M. Holden, author of Noses, was hired as technical adviser. Two prosthetic noses were made for each filming day. Each took six hours to create, using a gallon of grain alcohol and plastic substance, and took 45 minutes to apply to Ferrer. In Rostand’s play, Cyrano dies after a falling log strikes him. The producers changed this for the film because it looked like slapstick comedy when photographed.

Ferrer’s award-winning Cyrano

Ferrer made a five-week promotional tour of 12 cities before the release. He said audiences could be timid about classics, citing the respect for Shakespeare that could make people afraid to laugh at Shakespearean comedy. The film had its world premiere at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills, California, on November 20, 1950, and recorded a loss of $300,000.

Ferrer received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance and became the first actor to receive an Academy Award and a Tony Award for the same role. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised Ferrer’s theatrical “gesture and eloquence,” his delivery of Rostand’s poetry, and his duelling. Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times called the film “a remarkable experiment in film-making” and praised the duel between Cyrano and a hundred men. Variety said Gordon’s direction did not always fulfill the work’s possibilities, but permitted solid moments in a story it considered essentially Ferrer’s. In 2022, the Library of Congress selected the film for the United States National Film Registry as “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”

Film details from the Wikipedia article “Cyrano de Bergerac (1950 film)”. Text adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0.