Barbara Rush: TCM will be paying tribute to the 1950s actress who died at age 97 in March 2024.
- TCM’s schedule – Sept. 3: As a “Memorial Tribute” to 1950s actress Barbara Rush, Turner Classic Movies will be airing five features, including the TCM premiere of Jesse Hibbs’ 1956 boxing drama World in My Corner, costarring Audie Murphy.
- This Barbara Rush article includes a brief overview of one of her TCM movies: Bigger Than Life.
TCM ‘Memorial Tribute’ – Sept. 3 evening schedule: 5 Barbara Rush movies in honor of the 1950s actress who died at age 97 last March
On the evening of Sept. 3, Turner Classic Movies will be presenting a five-title “Memorial Tribute” to 1950s actress Barbara Rush, who died at age 97 last March 31. The lineup includes the premiere of Jesse Hibbs’ little-remembered 1956 boxing drama World in My Corner, costarring Audie Murphy. (See TCM’s Barbara Rush movie schedule further below. Most titles will remain available for a while on the Watch TCM app.)
Busy at Paramount in 1951 (including Rudolph Maté’s cult classic When Worlds Collide), at Universal from 1953–1956, and at 20th Century Fox from 1956–1958, Rush was rarely given the chance to shine in her movies, which tended to focus on the male leads – e.g., the TCM offerings Bigger Than Life and The Young Philadelphians, which revolve around James Mason’s and Paul Newman’s troubled characters, respectively.
Below is a brief glimpse at one Barbara Rush movie airing as part of TCM’s “Memorial Tribute”: Bigger Than Life.
Bigger Than Life (1956)
Directed by Nicholas Ray and produced by leading man James Mason, Bigger Than Life is a particularly interesting entry in Barbara Rush’s career – even though this melodrama with a message did nothing to advance it.
A 20th Century Fox release that flopped with both critics and audiences when it came out, Bigger Than Life has developed a following in the last six decades chiefly thanks to one man: Filmmaker and Cahiers du Cinéma contributor Jean-Luc Godard, who decided to include it on his 1963 list of the Top Ten American sound films.
It’s unclear whether Godard was onto something or on something when he came up with that list – which also includes current favorites The Searchers (John Ford) and Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock) – but the result has been the same. An influential voice has turned a critical and commercial dud into a certified cult classic.
So much so, at least in France, that Barbara Rush was invited to present an award at a 1990s Prix César ceremony because of her association with the film, which was singled out as she was introduced on stage.
Now, whether Bigger Than Life deserves all that Godard-engendered acclaim is something else. A badly miscast James Mason stars as a small-town schoolteacher whose addiction to Cortisone (“the greatest thing that has come our way since penicillin”) nearly ruins his family and professional life. In a thankless subordinate role, Rush plays his concerned wife.
Note: When asking yourself how something like Bigger Than Life got made, keep in mind that Billy Wilder’s Best Picture Oscar winner The Lost Weekend (1945) and Otto Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) were both sizable hits. The former stars Best Actor Oscar winner Ray Milland as an out-of-control alcoholic; the latter stars Best Actor nominee Frank Sinatra as a (it is implied) heroin addict.
Now, one major plus for Bigger Than Life: Unlike most CinemaScope movies in which the actors get lost in the sets and/or scenery, director Ray makes excellent use of closeups. If only he had placed a firmer hand on his performers.
Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum were credited for this big-screen transfer of Berton Roueché’s article “Ten Feet Tall,” published in the September 1955 edition of The New Yorker.
Lastly, considering how brazenly Bigger Than Life borrows from Douglas Sirk’s films – minus the genuineness underneath the melodrama – how come there aren’t any Sirk titles on Godard’s 1963 list?
Post-1960
After 1960, Barbara Rush switched her focus to television (e.g., recurring roles in the series Peyton Place [1968–1969] and Flaming Road [1980–1982]) and the stage (e.g., national tours of Forty Carats, Private Lives).
Indeed, Rush was seen in a mere seven titles until her 1982 big-screen swan song, Randal Kleiser’s ménage à trois drama Summer Lovers, in which she played Daryl Hannah’s mother.
Notable efforts during that two-decade stretch include Martin Ritt’s solid Western Hombre (1967) and Nancy Walker’s moderately amusing camp classic/critical and box office disaster Can’t Stop the Music (1980), with Rush as the socialite mother of attorney Bruce Jenner (later Caitlyn Jenner).
TCM will be showing one of these latter-day Barbara Rush titles, Gordon Douglas’ Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964), which would be of interest only to die-hard Frank Sinatra-Dean Martin-Sammy Davis Jr. fans if it weren’t for the fact that this comedy-musical mix features Rush as the “leading woman” (actually a subordinate role) and, as her father, veteran Edward G. Robinson in a cameo.
As for Barbara Rush’s best movie performance, you’ll likely find it in Richard Quine’s 1960 drama Strangers When We Meet, in which she plays the wife of adulterous husband Kirk Douglas, who has been having an affair with Kim Novak.
Rush was married to actor Jeffrey Hunter (The Searchers) from 1950–1955 and to film industry publicist Warren Cowan from 1959–1969.
Immediately below is Barbara Rush’s “Memorial Tribute” schedule.
Barbara Rush movies: TCM’s ‘Memorial Tribute’ schedule (EDT) – Sept. 3
8:00 PM Bigger Than Life (1956)
Director: Nicholas Ray.
Cast: James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Robert F. Simon, Christopher Olsen, Roland Winters, Rusty Lane, Rachel Stephens, Kipp Hamilton.
95 min. Drama.9:45 PM World in My Corner (1956)
Director: Jesse Hibbs.
Cast: Audie Murphy, Barbara Rush, Jeff Morrow, John McIntire, Tommy Rall, Howard St. John, Chico Vejar, Steve Ellis, Art Aragon, Dani Crayne, Cisco Andrade, Harold ‘Tommy’ Hart, Sheila Bromley.
82 min. Drama.11:30 PM It Came from Outer Space (1953)
Director: Jack Arnold.
Cast: Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush, Charles Drake, Joe Sawyer, Russell Johnson, Kathleen Hughes.
81 min. Horror | Science-Fiction.1:00 AM The Young Philadelphians (1959)
Director: Vincent Sherman.
Cast: Paul Newman, Barbara Rush, Alexis Smith, Brian Keith, Diane Brewster, Billie Burke, John Williams, Robert Vaughn, Otto Kruger.
136 min. Drama.3:30 AM Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)
Director: Gordon Douglas.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Barbara Rush, Sammy Davis Jr., Bing Crosby, Peter Falk, Edward G. Robinson, Victor Buono.
123 min. Comedy | Musical.
notes/references
Barbara Rush “Memorial Tribute” movie schedule via the TCM website.
“Barbara Rush Movies: ‘Memorial Tribute’ Includes 1 TCM Premiere” last modified in September 2024.