Nicholas Ray was better at beginnings than endings. His very first film, They Live by Night (1948), opens—after a brief prologue which looks tacked on by the studio—with a startling aerial shot, taken ...

The story follows Jim Stark (played by James Dean) after his arrival in a new town. It isn't long before Jim starts to stir up trouble when he falls for Judy (Natalie Wood), a local girl. That in ...

Ed Avery, hero of Nicholas Ray’s film Bigger Than Life (1956), has a rare medical condition that only cortisone can treat. There’s just one little catch: Too much cortisone makes you psychotic. The ...