Originally posted by Chris Knipp
One movie I remember very vividly seeing on television during the daytime at home as a graduate student when I was very high was Nicolas Ray's Bigger Than Life with James Mason. Since it is about the effects of drugs on the personality the experience of watching it while high on drugs became really intense., epiphany-like. Apparently this movie is a hard to-find-item nowadays--not on DVD or tape. I wonder if you have seen that? Amazing. It has some of the intensity of Sam Fuller's movies.

I've never said it before but, based on the Nick Ray films I've seen and the reviews I've found of the ones I haven't seen, he was the best American director between 1948 and 1958. I've actually seen Bigger than Life but I disregard the viewing because it's a Scope film by a director who knew how to use a canvas that long and I watched it "formatted to fit your TV screen" a long time ago. The print and the sound quality were likely poor. It's out on dvd in both Spain and France but I am convinced it's only a matter of time before it comes out here. Someone called it "the American Beauty of 50s cinema" which jives with my recollection of the film.