Cyrano de Bergerac (1950 film)

Cyrano de Bergerac is a 1950 blackandwhite feature film based on the 1897 French Alexandrine verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. It uses poet Brian Hookers 1923 English blank verse translation as the basis for its screenplay. The film was the first motion picture version in English of Rostands play, though there were several earlier adaptations in different languages.

In seventeenth century Paris, poet and supreme swordsman Cyrano de Bergerac Jos Ferrer stops a play from being shown because he cannot stand the bombastic style of the principal actor, Montfleury Arthur Blake. An annoyed aristocratic fop, the Vicomte de Valvert Albert Cavens, provokes him into a duel by tritely insulting Cyranos enormous nose. Cyrano first mocks his lack of wit, improvising numerous inventive ways in which Valvert could have phrased it much to the amusement of the audience. He then composes a ballade for the occasion on the spot and recites it during the swordfight. With the last line, he stabs his opponent.Cyranos friend Le Bret Morris Carnovsky, Captain of the Gascony guards, warns him he has made powerful enemies of his victims friends, but he is unconcerned. When Le Bret presses him to reveal the real reason he hates Montfleury, Cyrano admits that he became jealous when he saw his beautiful cousin Roxane Mala Powers being smiled at by the actor. He confesses that he is in love with her, but harbors no hope of it being returned because of his nose. When he receives a request from Roxane to see her in the morning, he is finally emboldened to act. ........

Source: Wikipedia