Bigger Than Life (The Criterion Collection) BLU-RAY 03-23-2010

Nicholas Ray's Bigger Than Life is a great American film long esteemed overseas but little known in its own land. That should change with this addition to the Criterion Collection--the film's first-ever U.S. video release, and a paradigm of what Criterion exists to do. James Mason (who also produced the picture) is wonderfully subtle in an unlikely role, a Middle American schoolteacher named Ed Avery who's afflicted with a rare inflammation of the arteries. Only experimental hormone treatment can save the man from increasing pain and early death--but misuse of the drug leads to a darkening and distortion of his gentle personality and a nightmare situation for his family. Bigger Than Life isn't a cautionary lesson in the perils of "miracle drugs," even if its genesis was a New Yorker article about a real-life case of cortisone abuse. Instead, consider the film as an adult, flip-side variant of Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (made the year before): an EKG of the American middle class in the Eisenhower era. The medical issues on the surface pale beside, in Jonathan Lethem's phrase, "the anxieties just under the skin of the film"--the personal, cultural, and socio-economic dilemmas that mostly remain unspoken, and unanswerable.


Condition: NEW

Actors: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau
Directors: Nicholas Ray
Format: Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, Color, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
Language: English
Region: Region A/1
Number of discs: 1
Rated:
Unrated
Not Rated
Studio: Criterion
DVD Release Date: March 23, 2010
Run Time: 95 minutes

Cast & Crew

James Mason Ed Avery
Barbara Rush Mrs. Lou Avery
Walter Matthau Wally Gibbs
Robert Simon Dr. Norton
Christopher Olsen Richie Avery
Roland Winters Dr. Rurich
Rusty Lane La Porte
Rachel Stephens Nurse
Kipp Hamilton Pat Wade
Betty Caulfield Mrs. La Porte
Virginia Carroll Mrs. Jones
Renny McEvoy Mr. Jones
Billy Jones Mr. Byron
Lee Aaker Joe
Jerry Mathers Freddie
Portland Mason Nancy
Natalie Masters Mrs Tyndal
Richard Collier Milkman
Lewis Charles Dr MacLennan
Gus Schilling Druggist
Alex Frazer Clergyman
Mary Carver Saleslady
Eugenia Paul Saleslady
Nan Dolan Dr. Norton's Nurse
William Schallert Pharmacist

Technical Credits

Nicholas Ray Director
Eli Dunn Asst. Director
W.D. Flick Sound/Sound Designer
Cyril Hume Original Story,Screenwriter
Charles LeMaire Costumes/Costume Designer
Harry M. Leonard Sound/Sound Designer
Louis Loeffler Editor
Joe MacDonald Cinematographer
Richard Maibaum Original Story,Screenwriter
James Mason Producer
Ben Nye Makeup
David Raksin Score Composer
Stuart A. Reiss Set Decoration/Design
Walter Scott Set Decoration/Design
Jack Martin Smith Art Director
Lyle Wheeler Art Director
Mary Wills Costumes/Costume Designer