Bigger Than Life

James Mason gives a shattering performance in Nicholas Ray's BIGGER THAN LIFE, an extraordinarily rich study of mid-1950s malaise, hidden under the guise of being a medical case history of a man who undergoes a radical personality transformation after taking the experimental "wonder drug" cortisone.

Ed Avery (James Mason) is a teacher who, after suffering a series of sharp pains, and then blacking out, is taken to the hospital for a battery of tests. He is diagnosed with a rare case of inflammation of the arteries and is told that most cases are fatal within one year, but that an experimental hormone called cortisone could prolong his life. His condition improv...