Bigger Than Life (1956)

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This little-known movie caught me by surprise, for all kinds of reasons, not the least being Nicholas Ray's awkward adventure into Douglas Sirk territory. More so, the story's focus on the now-more-timely topic of prescription drug addiction is captivating to see from a perspective 60 years later. As a piece of post-war cultural history, it is compelling, dealing as it does with doubts about medicine and concerns about mental illness. As a movie though, I was distracted by its stiff production and histrionic message. It sure is strange enough to keep your attention in any case.

Ed Avery (James Mason) is a typical (though idealized) 1950s husband and father who is facing serious health problem. To save his life, he begins taking the controversial new drug Cortisone which soon brings about a major – and quite shocking – personality transformation.James Mason is superb in this role. At first, he's charming and lovable, but gradually morphs into a horrifying monster. He had me utterly convinced he was really vile and very dangerous. Barbara Rush gives a good performance as the steadfast housewife and mother who loves him, no matter how grotesque he becomes. Walter Matthau is likable in a supporting role as Ed's co-worker. The movie was directed by Nicholas Ray ("Rebel Without a Cause") and had some surprisingly blunt and realistic dialogue for 1956.This story is even more relevant today with so much drug abuse and dependence. Mason's transformation from 'Father Knows Best' to 'Mr. Hyde' is utterly believable and frightening. Good movie.

Bigger Than Life was supposed to be just another 20th Century Fox back-lot film, a 'problem' picture stemming from a magazine article. It is a credit to the ingenuity and vision of Nicholas Ray that he managed to deliver a devastating critique of suburban American life in the 50s, all-the-while working within the studio system and not ruffling any feathers.As with all Ray's best films, it is hinged around an erratic and unstable protagonist whom the audience cares for. James Mason gives a fantastically frightening performance, his transatlantic accent only heightening the fact that his character doesn't fit in to this cosy picture of domesticity. The use of colour and decor is pitch perfect, and once again Ray's sense of space and geography shines through. Overall, it's a thoroughly enthralling yet disconcerting experience which (intentionally or not) is about much more than first meets the eye.9/10

The dark side of the suburban dream is revealed in Nicholas Ray's wide-screen potboiler, starring the always erudite James Mason as a mild mannered schoolteacher, suffering from arthritis, who discovers the cure is worse than the disease when his cortisone prescription transforms him into a pill-popping megalomaniac. The title certainly describes the emotional pitch of the drama, and whatever topical message the film might have had is diluted today by the vicarious thrill of watching a 'typical American household' torn apart by Mason's drug-induced delusions of grandeur. The climax occurs when, for some minor infraction, Mason sets out to punish his young son by killing him, and, after his wife pleads for mercy, citing God's good example to Job, Mason shouts out, "God was wrong!" Enough said?