I am a fan of Cyrano de Begerac. I saw the 1950 version of the movie for the first time in 1996, and I was hooked. Jose Ferrer's performance in the title role was certainly worthy of the Best Actor Oscar he received.
It was the mastery of language and quick wit of Cyrano that made him so appealing to me. True wit is a fairly rare capacity, and I value it when I find it. As Sacha Guitry said, "You can pretend to be serious; you can't pretend to be witty."
Anyway, I thought it would be good for my children to see the movie, but when they found out it was black and white they refused--all four of them. I offered a dollar to any who would watch it with me; still no takers.
In the spring of 1996 my parents were visiting us at our home in Dayton, Ohio. I had taken some leave from work to be with them, and one morning with the kids at school I suggested to my dad that we could watch Cyrano de Begerac. He had never seen it, and furthermore, he didn't hold the mistaken notion that a movie couldn't possibly be good in black and white.
We settled into the couch to watch it and were about 30 minutes into the movie when my son, Jansen, arrived home from his college class. He stood in the doorway as he figured out what we were watching, and said, "So, Grandpa, I see Dad roped you into watching Cyrano de Bergerac with him. Did he pay you a dollar?"
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