Bigger Than Life (1956)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

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:

Schoolteacher | Cortisone | Abuse | Illness | Miracle 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

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (optical prints) (Westrex Recording System) | 4-Track Stereo (magnetic 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: [of wife Lou] It's a shame that I didn't marry someone who was my intellectual equal.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Edge of Outside (2006)

Best Manic Depressive portrayal

A fast moving gutsy view of what happens within a family when one member becomes manic, in this case from prescription drug addiction/ abuse. A subject that only became widely talked about years and years after this groung breaking film. Pointed out as the last film director Ray made that was set in "modern" times. The end of a cycle for him and one that was personal to Ray who struggled with addictions and troubled home life.

There are two other reviewers who need a bit of a lashing. One innocently enough thinks that Barbara Rush, is Barbara Bel Geddes. Another one thinks the situation of the home craziness being kept at home is wrong and unreal of dated. Sorry Charlie, you've got some of your facts about the plot wrong and you've never seen this kind of craziness.

I've personally seen this kind of Manic behavior in real life and this is one of the best, probably the best representation of it ever on the screen, including the religious mania aspects. If you find these aspects funny, they are in their horrible absurdity, very true to the way these manias attach themselves to Manic Depressive behavior. This movie mostly concentrates on the manic side of it.

Definitely worth seeing on the big screen or in widescreen. James Mason is a good as he ever was, and he was awfully good many times. This is a great movie on many levels and his performance is one of the best put on film. What restraints were forced on the movie by the era it was made in, actually make it better and more scary than a film which can show vomiting and other drug side effects. This is psychologically horrifying. This emotional craziness is grim enough on its own and makes it all about the drama of the situation rather than the hype and tabloid parts.

The scenes with the son dealing with his own father's behavior are especially unsettling and moving. The whole cast is good. Matthau fans will find him perhaps not getting to show all he can do here,but he's good as the buddy character.

Pretty much everything works in this film, you can pull symbols out of it if you want, there are plenty to find, but it plays out as fascinating reality.

This films reputation is good, but it needs to be more widely seen.