Rent Bigger Than Life (1956)
3.8 of 5 from 95 ratings
1h 31min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
One of the greatest American films of the 1950s and a high point in the careers of both the lead actor James Mason and director Nicholas Ray. Mason gives a towering performance as Ed Avery, a happily married schoolteacher who agrees to take a new 'miracle drug' when diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease. It is not long before the drug begins producing malevolent and murderous side-effects that bring to the fore all of Ed's long-repressed frustrations with his life. Mason's support is, exceptional: Barbara Rush as Ed's devoted wife, Christopher Olsen a s his cruelly punished son and Walter Matthau as his faithful colleague. One of cinema's most persuasive portraits of psychological turmoil, the film also succeeds magnificently as searing melodrama and subversive social critique, with Ray, his scriptwriters and cinematographer achieving a perfect balance between emotional realism and exprer;sionist allegory. - Actors:
- 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, Mary Carroll, Virginia Carroll, Mary Carver, Betty Caulfield, Lewis Charles, George Chester, Richard Collier
- Directors:
- Nicholas Ray
- Writers:
- Cyril Hume, Richard Maibaum
- Aka:
- One in a Million
- Studio:
- BFI Video
- Genres:
- Drama
- Collections:
- Getting to Know..., 10 Films to Watch if You Like A Star Is Born, A History of Films Inspired by Magazine Articles, Cinema Paradiso's 2024 Centenary Club: Part 2, Films to Watch If You Like..., Getting to Know: James Mason, A Brief History of Film..., The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to: Wim Wenders
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Reviews (2) of Bigger Than Life
Good but flawed - Bigger Than Life review by CP Customer
Interesting artefact from the period when the American Dream was falling apart.
On this occasion it's not commies, space aliens, zombies or teenagers, it's science (in the form of the drug cortisone). Nicholas Ray directs with his usual tautness and finesse, but it all heats up a bit too quickly and unrealistically.
James Mason is good in the lead role and it is clear that this was a project he believed in as he is credited as Producer.
Ultimately it is let down by a phoney-feeling happy ending that is tacked on in the final seconds.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
He Keeps Coming Home - Bigger Than Life review by griggs
Nicholas Ray turns one suburban house into a pressure cooker, then keeps cranking the dial. James Mason starts out as the dad you'd want at your table and ends up someone you'd cross the street to avoid. The trouble is, he keeps coming home.
The house changes shape too. Rooms that feel cosy early on start to feel like traps later, and the shadows do plenty of the acting — sharp angles, sickly light, like the place has caught whatever Ed has.
Mason is the whole show, running through tenderness, rage and delusion like someone's shouting emotions from the stalls, without once tipping into pantomime. It lands because of the pacing: slow enough to talk yourself out of it, then it turns on a sixpence. Underneath it, Ray's needling suburban respectability — and meaning it.
I found the medical angle uncomfortable, though maybe not for the reasons Ray intended — a wonder drug curdling into domestic tyranny plays oddly now, with vaccine scepticism doing fine already.
Barely over ninety minutes, and it doesn't waste a second. It stings.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.