Bigger Than Life (1956)

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

Director:

Nicholas Ray

Writers:

Cyril Hume (story), Richard Maibaum (story),

Stars:

James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited 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

Storyline

Schoolteacher and family man Ed Avery, who's been suffering bouts of severe pain and even blackouts, is hospitalized with what's diagnosed as a rare inflammation of the arteries. Told by doctors that he probably has only months to live, Ed agrees to an experimental treatment: doses of the hormone cortisone. Ed makes a remarkable recovery, and returns home to his wife, Lou, and their son, Richie. He must keep taking cortisone tablets regularly to prevent a recurrence of his illness. But the "miracle" cure turns into its own nightmare as Ed starts to abuse the tablets, causing him to experience increasingly wild mood swings.

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Plot Keywords:

schoolteacher | cortisone | miracle drug | drug | illness | 

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Taglines:

Portrait of a man with a habit!

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 August 1956 (USA)

Also Known As:

One in a Million

Filming Locations:

Beverly Hilton Hotel - 9876 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min 91 min (FMC Library Print)

Sound Mix:

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

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Did You Know?

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.

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Goofs

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.

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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.

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Connections

Referenced in American Beauty (1999)

User Reviews

Terrifying

This is an excellent movie. I saw it once, and I never wish to see it again. I grew up in a household like this, only there was never a solution to my father's mania, depression, and incredible anger.

About all I can say about Mr Mason's performance, and that of Ms Rush, is that they could have been my parents, and I could have been that kid. It never got to the point where I was offered up like Isaac, but the rest of it was right, right down to the speech where the father condemns all children because they're ignorant. I'd heard that one. His wife was helpless; they all are.

I do not know where the screenwriters got their dialog, but I hope they didn't learn it the way I did. As it happened, I was terrified and transfixed while watching it, only calming down after the father realized that something was wrong, and vowed to correct it, and there was a means of correcting it.

When the movie was over--I don't know if I watched it in the theater or on TV--I had to go home, where there was still rage, and no solution to it. I would have been nine years old.

There was a time that I wanted my parents to see that movie, in the hope that they'd realize that this was how they acted, and stop it.

It never happened. They were divorced years later. My father was angry and crazy right up to the day he died three years ago. My mother, in her nursing home in Cleveland, maintains that I must be making it all up.

M Kinsler