BIGGER THAN LIFE

Details

• Release Year: 1956
• Genre: Drama
• Plot: Though ignored at the time of its release, Nicholas Ray’s Bigger Than Life is now recognized as one of the great American films of the 1950s. When a friendly, successful suburban teacher and father (James Mason, in one of his most indelible roles) is prescribed cortisone for a painful, possibly fatal affliction, he grows dangerously addicted to the experimental drug, resulting in his transformation into a psychotic and ultimately violent household despot. This Eisenhower-era throat-grabber, shot in expressive CinemaScope, is an excoriating take on the nuclear family. That it came in the day of Father Knows Best makes it all the more shocking—and wildly entertaining.
• Cast: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Robert F. Simon, Christopher Olsen, Roland Winters, Rusty Lane, Rachel Stephens, Kipp Hamilton, Dee Aaker, David Bedell, Gail Bonney, Harold Bostwick, Lovyss Bradley, Mary Carroll, Virginia Carroll, Mary Carver, Betty Caulfield, Lonny Chapman, Lewis Charles, George Chester, Ruth Clifford, Richard Collier, Fred Dale, Nan Dolan, Nestor Eristoff, George Ford, Alex Frazer, Grace Hayle, Bill Jones, Colin Kenny, Gustave Lax, Wilbur Mack, Eve March, Thomas Martin, Portland Mason, Natalie Masters, Jerry Mathers, Mary McAdoo, Renny McEvoy, Joseph Mell, Sid Melton, Joe Merritt, John Monaghan, Eugenia Paul, Paul Peters, Gladys Richards, Mary Margaret Robinson, Gus Schilling, Ann Spencer, Hal Taggart, Nicholas Ray, Cyril Hume, Richard Maibaum, Burton Roueche, Gavin Lambert, Clifford Odets
• Director: Nicholas Ray
• Runtime: 1:35
• Company: Twentieth Century-Fox, The Criterion Collection
• Media Format: Movie