BIGGER THAN LIFE

US, 1956, 95 minutes, Colour.
James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Robert F. Simon.
Directed by Nicholas Ray.

Bigger than life was a cautionary tale from the mid-1950s, geared for a wide audience, presented in Cinemascope and colour with a very sympathetic star in James Mason who had made quite an impact in England in the 1940s, had a successful career in Hollywood in the 1950s including a number of swashbuckling films but, especially, in his Oscar-nominated performance with Judy Garland in A Star is Born.

The story is particularly relevant to later decades. This was before any thalidomide scares or other investigations into the use of drugs without testing.

James Mason portrays a teacher, with a family, who has severe pain, blackouts and is diagnosed with an inflammation of the arteries, a rare disease. He is given a limited time to live. He then agrees to experimental treatment of cortisone. While he makes a recovery, he keeps taking the tablets to prevent the illness recurring. However, he begins to be adversely affected, overusing the tablets and experiencing mood swings.

The film is careful in its final conclusion – and does not satisfy a generation which is very much used to litigation about drugs and their suitability to be on the market.

James Mason is very good in the central role. Barbara Rush is his sympathetic wife. This is an early film for Walter Matthau.

The film was directed by Nicholas Ray who began his directing career very effectively in the late 40s with They Lived By Night and Knock on Any Door. He made a number of conventional thrillers and action films in the early 1950s but also made the classic western, Johnny Guitar. Again he made an impact with his Rebel Without a Cause.

In the 1960s he made a number of wide-screen spectaculars including The Savage Innocents, King of Kings and 55 Days at Peking.

1. What did the title mean and to whom did it refer? How? Its relationship to drugs and addiction?

2. How powerful would this drama have been for the mid-fifties? Its message about drugs and addiction? What impact does it have today, our being used to drugs?

4. How was the ordinary family setting established in the film? Eddie at his work? His wife and his relationship to his son? Their ordinary way of doing things? Typical middle Americans? How important was this ordinary family setting for the drama which was to ensue?

5. How did this help audience identification and their receiving of the message?

5. What kind of person was Ed? An ordinary man, a teacher, well-respected, a good husband and father? The impact of his illness on him? The reality of his illness? The fear that it induced?

6. What comment on medicine and experimentation did the film make? The risks to be undertaken as regards drug treatment? Should Ed have taken the risk? What about his wife?

6. How did the film stress the good effects of the drug? In the cessation of pain and the control of the illness? Ed’s ability to live a normal life and do normal work?

7. Why did he become addicted? How did he become addicted? How was the effect of the addiction brought home to us? Its effect on him and his changed personality, its effect on his wife and child? A Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde situation? How frightening was this? Why?

8. How was Ed’s new personality related to his old personality? The impact of such sequences as the lesson with Richie at home? His obsession about Richie’s future? His making Richie do the problem? His relentlessness? His behaviour at the meal and about the glass of milk? His breaking with his wife? His giving his life for his son? How good was their reaction? The need for patience and understanding in coping? The alternative was pain?

9. The importance of Richie’s finding that the Cortisone had been abused? The effect on Ed? The murderous effect? The impact of the sermon in the church? How melodramatic was the sequence with the Bible and the scissors? Does addiction give such savage tendencies? Tricking of his wife and locking her in the cupboard?

10. Was the solution of the film too easy? Wally's coming and disarming him? The possibility of his recovering normally?

11. How suspenseful were the final sequences? The wife and Richie waiting for some solution? His awakening from his coma? Their willing ness to help him though they had no assurance?

12. Was the happy ending satisfying? Was it reassuring? Had the message come across strongly so that a happy ending was warranted?