Bigger Than Life

Ostensibly a drama about prescription drug misuse and abuse, this little-seen 1956 portrait of grade-school teacher and father Ed Avery (James Mason) also offers a pointed social commentary on some of the stresses afflicting middle America in the 1950s. When Avery, who is secretly working a second job to make ends meet, is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, a new “wonder drug” is all that can save him. Fearing a relapse (and the attendant costs), Avery self-medicates with the experimental drug, triggering psychological side effects that include rampant egotism and arrogance, which also inadvertently uncover his repressed fears and desires. The almost cowering subservience of his wife, Lou (Barbara Rush), is equally revealing of a family distorted by economic and social anxieties that are as relevant today as they were in the mid-20th-century. Director Nicholas Ray creates a powerful visual expression of the central character's experience—using distorted reflections and monstrous shadows—while directing Mason through a harrowing emotional rollercoaster of a role that ultimately displays a vulnerability that men of that era simply didn't show. DVD/Blu-ray extras on this Criterion Collection release include audio commentary by movie critic Geoff Andrew, a video appreciation from author Jonathan Lethem, an archival 1977 interview with Ray, a new video interview with Susan Ray (the director's widow), and a booklet with an essay by B. Kite. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)