Synopsis: Schoolteacher with fatal disease becomes psychotic as a result of overdosing on cortisone
Director: Nicholas Ray
Actors: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau
Date: 1956
How viewed: Lovefilm rental
Rating: 5/5
David Meyer says:
This is Nicholas Ray's masterful take on the unease, paranoia, desperation and denial underlying the happy facade of suburban America.
I say:
This is a tremendous little film - an amiable school teacher develops a rare disease (polyarteritis nodosa, an inflammation of the arteries) and is given less than a year to live, and is prescribed a new drug, cortisone. He makes a remarkable recovery, but slowly, as a result of over-dosing, becomes psychotic, with paranoia and delusions of grandeur. His relationship with his wife and young son break down, eventually to the point where he threatens to kill them both. James Mason give a terrific performance, slowly disintegrating from mild-mannered family man, to monster, and the film raises real issues about the perceived shame of mental illness, and the dilemma between being kept alive by a drug and living with its side effects.
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