Mason was cruel, so cruel, and I loved it :) The ending however, was dissapointing (too Hoolywood-like).

A solid film with a central idea which is still relevant and with a great performance from James Mason. It does suffer from a somewhat ridiculous shift in tone in the final third though.

One of Mason's best roles. He completely owned this character, at times making it too difficult to view because he was a down right scary person. Ray's use of lighting (strong shadows) really add to the film. A true auteur who can capture his time.

The nuclear family that failed for all the reasons (self-medication, male authority, religious mania) it was supposed to succeed. N.Ray bashed suburbia before it was cool; a socialist, he paints American exceptionalism and capitalism as just as much calls to conformity as the Communism we fear(ed). What could very easily have been corny exploitation (possible titles: "BIG BAD DAD", "I MARRIED A DOPE FIEND") is made into one of the most accomplished, dark, and entertaining films of the 1950s.

Picks up a lot of steam as it goes and turns into a pitch black look at 50's Americana. The cop out ending will keep this out of my Tier 10 but it's an easy T9. Oh, and Barbara Rush is gorgeous!

James Mason is magnificent and Nicholas Ray is inspired. Together, they take what could have been a routine film about the dangers of cortisone addiction and transform into an unsettling parable about the brooding heart of American patriarchy. Superb use of Technicolor in a dramatic film.

It was great to see meaningless, casual smalltalk in a movie from this time that isn't complete drivel, and the film is fairly nice on a technical level, but seriously - those last 20 to 30 minutes and especially the ending are so incredibly bad that anything that might have seemed good before is negated and makes the whole movie seem like nothing but a dated moral tale.

A pretty great examination of the perfect 1950's family that happens to be dressed up as a melodrama. It builds up to a horrifying climax quite nicely, although the ending is kinda lame.

Some hammy directorial touches (the Colossal Guy moment, and one or two goofy close-ups)...and it sounds like about 4000 musicians must've worked on this production. But despite the hokum (btw why isn't melodrama ever mellow?), the main character's druggy behavior does have depth to it, made all the more convincing by Mason's performance. I had to laugh at the end when the doctors tell his wife it was all because he misused the stuff (is she really gonna believe what they say after all that?)

Proto-The Shining. Fabulous performance from James Mason and Nicholas Ray does a nice job behind the camera. The ending is not the best though. It even felt too saccharine to me and I love sappy endings/cried watching Terms of Endearment. "GOD WAS WRONG!"

05 Setembre 2011 - M'ha semblant interessant i entretinguda si bé no m'ha afectat prou intensament. Aquesta manca suposo que es deu altra vegada a la distància temporal i a la meva manca d'informació contextual. Probablement critica molt justament la societat nordamericana dels 50. Malhauradament tinc poca cosa a dir-ne.

Weak melodrama about how drugs make you go crazy. James Mason is good but oddly miscast as an All American Dad, the little boy is fucking awful, Walter Matthau is underutilized, and the ending is a shitty attempt at Hitchcock.

James Mason slowly losing touch with his mind makes this one watchable -- it's the one really exceptional element in this otherwise very 50s-style melodrama. Doesn't work as social commentary for me, but YMMV.

#569

Directed with impetuous eleganse and assertive resolution, Ray tells a whole lot through the glaring images, quite forcefully displaying the anxiety and disturbance in the "idyllic" everyday life of the little family. The ending doesn't quite satisfy (maybe it feels a bit too unambiguous?), and the film may not be that really, really interesting, but the robust direction and the film's beautiful surface are enough to please.

Social critique in a colorful melodrama, I'd think it was a Sirk film if I didn't know better. It takes a while to get going and Mason overplays his role a bit but the character development is wonderful and every turn of the plot has something to say about 50's U.S. society.

Behold the scariness of a glass of milk!

499

What at first seems like a rather silly melodrama turns into a wickedly subversive, 1950's version of The Shining. James Mason plays a schoolteacher who goes batshit crazy when he starts taking too much Cortisone, and begins to shatter his complacent suburban lifestyle. It's still a little on the silly side, and it takes a while to get going... but once it does, it's brimming with intensity and vicious critique. This is my favorite so far from Nicholas Ray, and Mason, too.

"God was WRONG"

# 482

The american household is destroyed.

"God was wrong"

It's all a bit obtuse, and the plot has probably lost its luster in hindsight (the inherent dangers of abusing meds is practically part of growing up now). But the film's best moments are in Mason's slow boil to insanity, where one can't tell where ambition ends and madness begins...

A precursor to The Shining in many ways. Despite two excellent leads and the always competent Nicholas Ray in the directors seat, its nowhere near as polished or effective, but still intensely satisfying.

521

The last minute is seriously awful, lets just hug and everything will be all right. It's mostly a solid movie but it takes awhile to get going. The kid is really annoying but Rush, Matthau and Mason are all good. Not Ray's best.