When a friendly, successful suburban teacher and father (James Mason, in one of his most striking roles) is prescribed cortisone for a painful, possibly fatal, affliction he grows dangerously addicted to the experimental drug. His transition from loving father to homicidal despot is depicted on a scale more akin to operatic tragedy than melodrama and, on top of the inestimable pleasures of Mason's performance, a narrative that explores society's use of drugs provides an unexpectedly prophetic dimension. When Nicholas Ray's masterpiece was released it was ignored by a society unwilling to contemplate its dark attack on the nuclear family, but, thankfully, it is now recognised as one of the great American films of the 1950s and, to many, represents the acme of Ray's career.