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| A saturated poster for Michael Gordon's Cyrano de Bergerac |
QUICK REVIEW:
Cyrano is a big-nosed, attention-seeking orator, who affronts and fascinates Paris with his genius. He is striving for love, but he can only experience it as a rhetorical stand-in for a beautiful man.
This the first English-language adaptation of the classic 1897 play features handsome sword fights and dated cannon battles. The dialog in Carl Foreman's (The Guns of Navarone (1961)) screenplay is, at times, too dense, but Puerto-Rican actor José Ferrer (The Caine Mutiny (1954)) is outstanding in the all-important title lead, - which is also the performance that won him his career's only Oscar.
Cyrano de Bergerac is a dated but entertaining action love-tragedy. It is available in public domain here, but in shabby quality. For a clearer image and sound, you can also buy it on DVD and Bluray.
It is directed by Baltimorean director Michael Gordon (Pillow Talk (1959)).
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| José Ferrer in the nose-prosthetics and costume get-up for the role that earned him his only Oscar, as Michael Gordon's Cyrano de Bergerac |
Watch the trailer here
Cost: 1.1 mil. $
Box office: 1.9 (US rentals only)
= Minor flop
[Cyrano de Bergerac was made for a smaller budget than other costume pictures of the type at the time because of fear it could flop, which it then ended up doing. It reportedly resulted in a 300k $ loss.]
What do you think of this version of Cyrano de Bergerac?
If you've seen others, do tell about it/them
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