Bigger Than Life *** (1956, James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau) – Classic Movie Review 12,836

Barbara Rush (January 4, 1927 – March 31, 2024).

Barbara Rush stars as James Mason’s wife in the acclaimed 1956 drama film Bigger Than Life, in which a school teacher’s misuse of an experimental drug results in his threatening harm to his family. 

Director Nicholas Ray’s 1956 American drama film Bigger Than Life is based on Berton Roueché’s New Yorker story, and stars James Mason, Barbara Rush and Walter Matthau.

James Mason also produced this acclaimed but somewhat overwrought vehicle for himself as Ed Avery, an ailing school teacher turned by a treatment of experimental wonder drugs into a homicidal psychotic.

He is diagnosed with a rare inflammation of the arteries called polyarteritis nodosa, and has only probably months to live. He agrees to experimental treatment with the hormone cortisone, but soon has violent mood swings, begins misusing the pills, and lies to his doctor to get more.

The talented Ray was perhaps not the right director to keep the lid on the overheated emotions on display here and the story’s intimate nature makes it seem an unsuitable subject for the CinemaScope format, which was then usually confined to epics. Indeed, Mason blamed its failure on its use of widescreen. But it is an interesting film, arguably maybe even a fascinating one, and Mason, Rush and the young Matthau as Mason’s friend Wally Gibbs are fine though, giving compelling performances, Mason especially.

Also in the cast are Robert Simon, Roland Winters, Christopher Olsen, Rusty Lane, Rachel Stephens, Kipp Hamilton, Betty Caulfield, Virginia Carroll, Renny McEvoy, Bill Jones, Dee Aaker, Jerry Mather, Portland Mason, Natalie Masters, Richard Collier, Lewis Charles, John Monoghan, and Gus Schilling.

The screenplay by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum is based on the 1955 article Ten Feet Tall by medical writer Berton Roueché in The New Yorker. Maibaum said that their original script was ‘muddied up’ by Nicholas Ray and that Clifford Odets rewrote some scenes.

After flopping at the box office and being reviewed unsympathetically, the film is now generally re-evaluated and often considered an intelligent exposé on medical malpractice and the overuse of prescription drugs, as well as indictment of attitudes to mental illness. The French, champions of Nicholas Ray’s work, came to its rescue. In an odd idea, Jean-Luc Godard praised it in 1963 as one of the 10 best American sound films ever, while François Truffaut called the script ‘intelligent and subtle’ and praised the ‘extraordinary precision’ of Mason’s performance, and the beauty of Joseph MacDonald’s CinemaScope photography.

The cast are James Mason as Ed Avery, Barbara Rush as Lou Avery, Walter Matthau as Wally Gibbs, Robert F Simon as Dr Norton, Russell Quick as Bully, Christopher Olsen as Richie Avery, Roland Winters as Dr Ruric, Rusty Lane as Bob LaPorte, Rachel Stephens as Nurse, Kipp Hamilton as Pat Wade, Betty Caulfield, Virginia Carroll, Renny McEvoy, Bill Jones, Dee Aaker, Jerry Mather, Portland Mason, Natalie Masters, Richard Collier, Lewis Charles, John Monoghan, and Gus Schilling.

Bigger Than Life is directed by Nicholas Ray, runs 95 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum, based on the 1955 article Ten Feet Tall by Berton Roueché, is shot in CinemaScope by Joseph MacDonald [Joe MacDonald], is produced by James Mason, and is scored by David Raksin.

Release date: August 2, 1956.

Budget: $1 million.

Barbara Rush died on March 31, 2024, at the age of 97.

She starred in When Worlds Collide, Flaming Feather, Bigger Than Life, The Young Philadelphians, The Young Lions, Robin and the 7 Hoods, and Hombre, and was a TV star in Peyton Place.

She was married to Jeffrey Hunter (1950 – 1955), publicist Warren Cowan (1959 – 1969) and sculptor Jim Gruzalski (1970 – 1973). She had two children, Christopher Hunter and Claudia Cowan (with Cowan).

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,836

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