Bigger Than Life (1956)

An archetypal suburban family, seeming perfect on the surface, briskly deteriorates when the father (James Mason) has a severe reaction to a new drug called Cortisone that manifests itself in severe mood swings, delusions of superiority and a Messiah complex that threaten the safety of his wife (Barbara Rush) and son (Christopher Olsen). Based on an article published in the New Yorker magazine by Berton Roueche called TEN FEET TALL and directed by Nicholas Ray. An astonishing piece of work and one of the seminal films of the 1950s. It's a disturbing film on many levels and so dark that it's no surprise that it was a commercial failure when first released. Mason is excellent (I'd call it a career best performance if it weren't for LOLITA), balancing the complex psychosis without going over the top like Jack Nicholson in THE SHINING. In fact, I can't help but wonder if Stephen King saw BIGGER THAN LIFE before he wrote THE SHINING. The similarities can't be ignored. In the best performance of her career, the underrated Barbara Rush has the more difficult "wife" role and young Olsen (squeezing in this solid performance between equally solid work for Hitchcock and Sirk) avoids the trap that mars so many child performances in 50s cinema. Ray, along with his ace cinematographer Joseph MacDonald (THE SAND PEBBLES) make expert use of the CinemaScope frame (some of MacDonald's lighting suggests a horror film) and David Raksin provides a strong underscore. With Walter Matthau in one of his early film roles and Kipp Hamilton.