Happened to me, very real movie!

marbleann

Possible spoilers! I saw this movie years ago, it comes on tv very seldom.  The movie is about a teacher who starts taking cortisone and starts acting nuts.  Well the same thing happened to me, but I forgot about this movie and connecting it with the drug I was taking.  I was put on a massive dose of Prednisone(a cortisone..steriod) and after a while I thought even though I was feeling better I was yelling and screaming at everyone.  Including my mother.  I had no idea I was acting this way for a while. To top it off I was angry all of the time and could hardly go out of the house.  I saw the movie while this was going on and realized it was the same medicine I was taking.  As crazy as this movie seems it really happens.  I felt I was in James Mason's characters head and knew exactly what he was feeling.  And the way his family and friends were acting mirrored the looks I was getting too.  I was warned that the medicine will make you gain weight and there is a possibility of high sugar counts but not the mood swings.  One thing you do not become addicted to the medicine but because it works so well you are afraid to stop taking it. You actually have to be weaned off. And that is a very hard thing to do.  I believe Jerry Lewis was in the hospital for months getting weaned of this drug. This movie actually saved me and my sanity. Because while looking at it I realized this is how I was acting.  I wish it was on DVD.  I am sure if people are warned ahead of time that if you take this medicine for a while you will go nuts and become depressed people will not take it.  This movie should be seen by all people who have a chronic illness where prednisone is part of their regiment.  I think this movie was made because cortisone..steriods has these terrible side affects and Nick Ray wanted to get the info out there.  plain and simple.  I don't believe it has any deep seeded psychological message.  This movie is more a docu-drama then just a thriller drama. I do know it is not about drug addiction because one does not become addicted to cortisone. Also I do believe it is a warning about anabolic steroids which is also in the same family as cortisone. Good movie.

score 9/10

marbleann 11 April 2004

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0057263/