Bigger Than Life

Watch Trailer Watch Movie

Bigger Than Life

"The story of the handful of hope that became a fistful of hell!"

1956

1h 35m

7.2(173 votes)

Drama

Overview

A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone, resulting in his transformation into a household despot.

Links & Resources

IMDbView

Social & External

IMDb

Production Companies

Videos & Trailers

2 videos

Cast & Crew

28 members

Acting

James Mason

Ed Avery

Acting

Barbara Rush

Lou Avery

Acting

Walter Matthau

Wally Gibbs

Acting

Robert F. Simon

Dr. Norton

Acting

Christopher Olsen

Richie Avery

Acting

Roland Winters

Dr. Ruric

Acting

Rusty Lane

Bob LaPorte

Acting

Rachel Stephens

Nurse

Acting

Kipp Hamilton

Pat Wade

Acting

Betty Caulfield

Mrs. LaPorte (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Virginia Carroll

Mrs. Jones (uncredited)

Acting

Renny McEvoy

Mr. Jones (uncredited)

Acting

Billy Jones

Mr. Byron (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Dee Aaker

Joe (uncredited)

Acting

Jerry Mathers

Freddie (uncredited)

Acting

Portland Mason

Nancy (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Natalie Masters

Mrs. Tyndall (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Richard Collier

Milkman (uncredited)

Acting

Lewis Charles

Mr. McLennan (uncredited)

Acting

Gus Schilling

Druggist (uncredited)

Acting

Alex Frazer

Clergyman (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Mary McAdoo

Mrs. Edwards (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Mary Carver

Saleslady (uncredited)

Acting

Eugenia Paul

Saleslady (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Gladys Richards

Lab Nurse (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

David Bedell

X-Ray Doctor (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Joseph Mell

Dispatcher (uncredited)

Acting

George Chester

Janitor (uncredited)

No Image

Similar Movies

5.4

1999

No Code of Conduct

A cop, his partner, and his father uncover a plot by city elders to smuggle drugs from Mexico into Phoenix, Arizona.

Movie

7.1

1966

Fahrenheit 451

In the future, the government maintains control of public opinion by outlawing literature and maintaining a group of enforcers, known as “firemen,” to perform the necessary book burnings. Fireman Montag begins to question the morality of his vocation…

Movie

7.1

1999

The Cider House Rules

Homer is an orphan who was never adopted, becoming the favorite of orphanage director Dr. Larch. Dr. Larch imparts his full medical knowledge on Homer, who becomes a skilled, albeit unlicensed, physician. But Homer yearns for a self-chosen life outside the orphanage. What will Homer learn about life and love in the cider house? What of the destiny that Dr. Larch has planned for him?

Movie

6.8

1997

Nowhere

In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.

Movie

7.5

1997

The Devil's Advocate

Aspiring Florida defense lawyer Kevin Lomax accepts a job at a New York law firm. With the stakes getting higher every case, Kevin quickly learns that his boss has something far more evil planned.

Movie

6.4

1987

Over the Top

Lincoln Hawk a hard-luck big-rig trucker takes us under the glaring Las Vegas lights for all the boisterous action of the World Armwrestling Championship. Relying on wits and willpower, Hawk tries to rebuild his life by capturing the first-place prize money, and the love of the son he abandoned years earlier into the keeping of his rich, ruthless father-in-law.

Movie

7.3

2005

Lord of War

Yuri Orlov is a globetrotting arms dealer and, through some of the deadliest war zones, he struggles to stay one step ahead of a relentless Interpol agent, his business rivals and even some of his customers who include many of the world's most notorious dictators. Finally, he must also face his own conscience.

Movie

6.0

1985

Constance

Constance is a bored, movie-loving schoolteacher in post-WW2 New Zealand who begins to fantasize that she's a Hollywood star - with tragic consequences.

Movie

6.4

1996

Crash

After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims, and he begins to use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife.

Movie

6.9

2000

Policewoman

A young police woman is faced with the difficulties between her responsibilities at work and her personal responsibilities.

Movie

6.5

2005

Willenbrock

Second-hand car sales man Willenbrock has everything that he could ever wish for. He is married, has two lovers, a cottage in the German city Grünen, and a BMW. Yet one day while at his cottage he gets mugged and his life is drastically changed. Little by little the world he once felt safe in falls apart around him.

Movie

7.0

1944

Meet Me in St. Louis

Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family up to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

Movie

7.2

1968

Bullitt

Senator Walter Chalmers is aiming to take down mob boss Pete Ross with the help of testimony from the criminal's hothead brother Johnny, who is in protective custody in San Francisco under the watch of police lieutenant Frank Bullitt. When a pair of mob hitmen enter the scene, Bullitt follows their trail through a maze of complications and double-crosses. This thriller includes one of the most famous car chases ever filmed.

Movie

7.2

2002

Irreversible

A woman’s lover and her ex-boyfriend take justice into their own hands after she becomes the victim of a rapist. Because some acts can’t be undone. Because man is an animal. Because the desire for vengeance is a natural impulse. Because most crimes remain unpunished.

Movie

5.2

1935

The Flame Within

Psychiatrist finds herself falling for her patient.

Movie

6.1

2006

World Trade Center

Two police officers struggle to survive when they become trapped beneath the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Movie

7.2

1998

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their hotel room and fear legal repercussions. Duke begins to drive back to L.A., but after an odd run-in with a cop, he returns to Sin City and continues his wild drug binge.

Movie

6.7

2007

Reclaim Your Brain

Frustrated, because he is forced to produce bad TV-shows, a manager of a TV-station, enters the station and manipulates the ratings, to initiate a TV-revolution.

Movie

6.9

2007

Irina Palm

Maggie, a quiet retiring grandmother, finds herself helpless as her grandson’s health deteriorates. When one last chance appears, but money is desperately short, Maggie acts to raise the cash in a fashion that surprises everyone but her.

Movie

7.4

1992

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.

Movie

Recommended Movies

7.4

1965

I Knew Her Well

A young woman from the Italian countryside experiences the dark side of the business after she moves to Rome to become a star.

Movie

7.5

1932

Scarface

In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.

Movie

6.2

1972

Fritz the Cat

A swinging, hypocritical college student cat raises hell in a satirical vision of the 1960s.

Movie

7.4

1953

Pickup on South Street

In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified information to the communists, Candy, who has been trailed by FBI agents for months in hopes of nabbing the spy ringleader, is sent by her ex-boyfriend, Joey, to find Skip and retrieve the valuable microfilm he now holds.

Movie

6.5

1978

Killer of Sheep

An African-American man working at a slaughterhouse in the Watts area of Los Angeles leads a dissatisfied and listless existence.

Movie

6.3

1983

Brainstorm

Two brilliant research scientists have invented a device capable of recording and playing back sensory experiences only to have devastating results when one of them records their own death.

Movie

7.4

1923

La Roue

Sisif, a railwayman, saves a young girl named Norma orphaned by a train crash and raises her as his own daughter alongside his son, Elie. As she becomes an adult, Sisif grapples with whether to tell Norma the truth about her parentage.

Movie

6.0

1913

The Student of Prague

Prague, Bohemia, 1820. Balduin, a penniless student, falls in love with Countess Margit, a wealthy noblewoman whom he has saved from drowning.

Movie

The Birth of the Goalie of the 2001 F.A. Cup Final

6.0

1982

The Birth of the Goalie of the 2001 F.A. Cup Final

A slow-witted couple decide to start a family.

Movie

7.5

1956

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

Movie

7.6

1971

Harold and Maude

The young Harold lives in his own world of suicide-attempts and funeral visits to avoid the misery of his current family and home environment. Harold meets an 80-year-old woman named Maude who also lives in her own world yet one in which she is having the time of her life. When the two opposites meet they realize that their differences don’t matter and they become best friends and love each other.

Movie

5.4

2015

Maggie

There's a deadly zombie epidemic threatening humanity, but Wade, a small-town farmer and family man, refuses to accept defeat even when his daughter Maggie becomes infected. As Maggie's condition worsens and the authorities seek to eradicate those with the virus, Wade is pushed to the limits in an effort to protect her. Joely Richardson co-stars in this post-apocalyptic thriller.

Movie

6.5

2008

Wanted

Doormat Wesley Gibson is an office worker whose life is going nowhere. He meets an attractive woman named Fox and discovers that his recently murdered father - whom Wesley never knew - belonged to the Fraternity, a secret society of assassins which takes its orders from Fate itself. Fox and Sloan, the Fraternity's leader, teach Wesley, through intense training, to tap into dormant powers and hone his innate killing skills. Though he enjoys his newfound abilities, he begins to suspect that there is more to the Fraternity than meets the eye.

Movie

8.5

2019

Parasite

All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.

Movie

8.1

2023

Oppenheimer

The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.

Movie

8.7

1972

The Godfather

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

Movie

8.1

2019

Joker

During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.

Movie

6.6

2020

Saint Maud

Having recently found God, self-effacing young nurse Maud arrives at a plush home to care for Amanda, a hedonistic dancer left frail from a chronic illness. When a chance encounter with a former colleague throws up hints of a dark past, it becomes clear there is more to sweet Maud than meets the eye.

Movie

8.3

1991

The Silence of the Lambs

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

Movie

8.3

1954

Rear Window

A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Movie