Post by kijii on Aug 14, 2019 16:27:43 GMT
Bigger Than Life (1956) / Nicholas Ray
Seen on DVD
This movie, set in the mid-50s, examines the behavioral effects of the new "miracle drug," Cortisone, to relieve acute pain. I sort of remember some talk about this drug when it first came into use. When used correctly and carefully it really did (does) provide pain relief. However, when abused, it can illicit huge swings in behavior. As the movie beings, Ed Avery (James Mason) is an underpaid school teacher (with a job as a taxi cab dispatcher on the side). He is a model father and husband, but is secretly hiding his huge acute abdominal pains.
When he has a complete medical exam, it is discovered that he has an incurable disease. However, Cortisone tablets are recommended for relief of his pain. Problems arise when he abuses the drug as starts to treat the people around him in a Nazi-like fashion, dedicating his life to making his family and finally only his son to a perfection. Barbara Rush plays his wife, Lou, and Walter Matthau plays his good friend and fellow school teacher.
Ed Avery: God was wrong!
Ed Avery: Childhood is a congenital disease - and the purpose of education is to cure it. We're breeding a race of moral midgets.
Ed Avery: [of wife Lou] It's a shame that I didn't marry someone who was my intellectual equal.
In this movie James Mason plays the Jekyll & Hyde school teacher. His Hyde side seems exaggerated but it allows Ray to use some great color film noir shots to amplify the character within. Note the shadow on the wall as Mason approaches his son here:
and here:
Seen on DVD
This movie, set in the mid-50s, examines the behavioral effects of the new "miracle drug," Cortisone, to relieve acute pain. I sort of remember some talk about this drug when it first came into use. When used correctly and carefully it really did (does) provide pain relief. However, when abused, it can illicit huge swings in behavior. As the movie beings, Ed Avery (James Mason) is an underpaid school teacher (with a job as a taxi cab dispatcher on the side). He is a model father and husband, but is secretly hiding his huge acute abdominal pains.
When he has a complete medical exam, it is discovered that he has an incurable disease. However, Cortisone tablets are recommended for relief of his pain. Problems arise when he abuses the drug as starts to treat the people around him in a Nazi-like fashion, dedicating his life to making his family and finally only his son to a perfection. Barbara Rush plays his wife, Lou, and Walter Matthau plays his good friend and fellow school teacher.
Ed Avery: God was wrong!
Ed Avery: Childhood is a congenital disease - and the purpose of education is to cure it. We're breeding a race of moral midgets.
Ed Avery: [of wife Lou] It's a shame that I didn't marry someone who was my intellectual equal.
In this movie James Mason plays the Jekyll & Hyde school teacher. His Hyde side seems exaggerated but it allows Ray to use some great color film noir shots to amplify the character within. Note the shadow on the wall as Mason approaches his son here:
and here: