Bigger Than Life (1956)

Director:

Nicholas Ray

Writers:

Cyril Hume (story) and
Richard Maibaum (story) ...

Release Date:

2 August 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The story of the handful of hope that became a fistful of hell!

Plot:

A seriously ill schoolteacher becomes dependent on a "miracle" drug that begins to affect his sanity.

Plot Keywords:

Illness | Psychotic | Family | Abuse | Drug

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

James Mason	...	Ed Avery
Barbara Rush	...	Lou Avery
Walter Matthau	...	Wally Gibbs
Robert F. Simon	...	Dr. Norton (as Robert Simon)
Christopher Olsen	...	Richie Avery
Roland Winters	...	Dr. Ruric
Rusty Lane	...	Bob LaPorte
Rachel Stephens	...	Nurse
Kipp Hamilton	...	Pat Wade

Also Known As:

One in a Million (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

95 min | 91 min (FMC Library Print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (magnetic prints) (Westrex Recording System) | Mono (optical prints) (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:12 | West Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-16

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Playwright Clifford Odets was invited on the set by the director Nicholas Ray, where he worked on re-writing the final scene of the film. Ed Avery (Jamese Mason), still delirious out of his coma, starting to talk about Abraham Lincoln was Odet's contribution.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: 37 minutes into the movie, Ed is at the bathroom sink and has just replaced the pill bottle in the medicine cabinet. As he closes the cabinet door, the director and the camera are reflected in the mirror.

Quotes:

Ed Avery: Childhood is a congenital disease - and the purpose of education is to cure it. We're breeding a race of moral midgets.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Edge of Outside (2006)

a great film until the ending

an intriguing comment on american 1950's lifestyle.All the elements are there-beautiful home,old football from school days,large fridge, young son, sexy wife.But underlying it all is strain and insecurity. This has to be paid for, health may collapse, the world is insecure-hydrogen bombs etc. All this, through the deus ex machina of cortisone addiction-drives James Mason to a madness of excess, of a kind of lust for pure quality, beautiful clothes for his wife ,zeal for learning, for sporting excellence,finally to an old testament manic purging of evil.The film survives its banal and turgid ending,but domestic bliss,domestic dementia and restrained domestic sex have seldom been better portrayed.