After witnessing a fan’s accidental death while rehearsing her latest play, successful actress Myrtle Gordon confronts ghosts, personal demons, and her own mortality as she grapples with her role.
![](/globalassets/programs/cinema/2025fy/0924/im-not-myself/bigger-than-life-1956-promo-still-credit---criterion.jpeg?center=0.07,0.42&width=1920&mode=crop&heightratio=0.5625&quality=80)
Bigger Than Life
In one of his most striking roles, James Mason plays a suburban father and teacher who transforms into a psychotic terror after he’s prescribed cortisone for a painful, life-threatening affliction. Directed by Nicholas Ray (In a Lonely Place, Rebel Without a Cause), produced by Mason, and shot in CinemaScope, Bigger Than Life was a box-office flop at the time of its release, but has since been acclaimed as one of the best American films of the 1950s—and, according to Jean-Luc Godard, one of the 10 best sound films ever made.
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