Schoolteacher and family man Ed Avery who's been suffering bouts of severe pain and even blackouts is hospitalized with what's diagnosed as a rare inflammation of the arteries. Told by doctors that he probably has only months to live Ed agrees to an experimental treatment: doses of the hormone cortisone. Ed makes a remarkable recovery and returns home to his wife Lou and their son Richie. He must keep taking cortisone tablets regularly to prevent a recurrence of his illness. But the miracle cure turns into its own nightmare as Ed starts to abuse the tablets causing... him to experience increasingly wild mood swings... [show more]
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Diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease a happily married teacher is prescribed cortisone; a miracle drug with devastating side effects including malevolent and murderous urges…
This combination of searing melodrama and subversive social critique is one of the key American films of the 1950s, a high point in the careers of lead actor James Mason and director Nicholas Ray. Mason gives one of his best ever performances as Ed Avery, a happily married schoolteacher who agrees to take a new 'miracle drug' when diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease. It is not long before the medication begins producing malevolent and murderous side-effects that bring to the fore all of Ed's long-repressed frustrations with his life. Barbara Rush plays Ed's devoted wife, Christopher Olsen is his cruelly punished son and Walter Matthau appears as his faithful colleague.
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