Bigger Than Life (1956)

Synopsis
Adapted from a New Yorker article, Bigger Than Life stars James Mason as schoolteacher Ed Avery. Upon learning that he is suffering from a potentially fatal illness, Avery is more than willing to take the new, untested drug cortisone. At first, the drug proves beneficial, with Avery making an apparently complete recovery. Before long, however, the drug's side-effects transform the mild-mannered teacher into a psychotic and a potential killer. Walter Matthau costars as the family friend who averts tragedy by saving Avery from himself. In later years, director Nicholas Ray expressed the wish that he hadn't mentioned cortisone by name, because the drug was still in its experimental stages and its positive and negative qualities had yet to be completely determined. Ray needn't have worried: because of its downbeat subject matter, Bigger Than Life was a box-office failure. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide