Bigger Than Life
1956, NR, 95 min. Directed by Nicholas Ray. Starring James Mason, Walter Matthau, Barbara Rush, Robert Simon.
REVIEWED By Marjorie Baumgarten, Mon., June 24, 2002
James Mason plays an American schoolteacher in Fifties suburbia. He is a quintessential "nice guy" and family man. Then his doctor prescribes the new wonder drug, cortisone, and though it keeps his illness in check the drug also blows up his ego to, roughly, the size of Atilla's. As a consequence, all begins to go haywire and Old Testament-like in suburbia. Of course, this is the heart of what interested Nick Ray, the socially aware filmmaker behind Rebel Without a Cause, Johnny Guitar, and In a Lonely Place, who was also a master of "agitated" CinemaScope compositions. (For more on the series see austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2002-05-31/screens_feature.html.)
A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.
Marjorie Baumgarten, Aug. 5, 2011
Marjorie Baumgarten, Aug. 5, 2011
Kimberley Jones, July 29, 2011
Louis Black, Dec. 30, 2005
Marjorie Baumgarten, July 28, 1995
Bigger Than Life, Nicholas Ray, James Mason, Walter Matthau, Barbara Rush, Robert Simon
