Customer Reviews

Lost Weekend (Full Screen)

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Alcoholism is a disease, and no other film before Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend portrayed it as such. Like Trainspotting, that was to come along fifty years later, people were up in arms when this film came out, saying that it would encourage people to drink. The desperate journey that Don Birnam goes on throughout this film certainly would not encourage anyone to drink. Yeah, it may feel good for a fleeting moment, but it is a false and transient feeling. It is a feeling that you may crave, but how far are you willing to go get it? In The Lost Weekend, we discover exactly how far Birnam is willing to go to get his fix, resorting to petty theft and selling his typewriter, which, since he's a writer, is essential for him to earn any sort of income. Wilder again makes it clear that he does not want to tell stories of the American Dream but stories of how far this dream can go wrong when human frailty comes into play.

I rarely watch older films. By "older" films, I mean movies made before 1960. It's not due to some prejudice on my part about black and white cinematography: my inability to view many early films arises from the fact that far too many of these movies are so melodramatic. You know what I mean: lots of swooning, hands swept across foreheads, and exaggerated body movements all set to crashing waves of syrupy orchestral music. Those swelling violins alone are enough to set my teeth on edge anytime I watch an old film, but occasionally a picture overcomes all of these pet peeves of mine and truly delivers on multiple levels. "The Lost Weekend" is one of those films. Sure, the emoting is there, as is the music and the swooning, but this compelling story about an alcoholic at the end of his rope always pulls at my heartstrings. I am going to start seeking out some classic older films that will tickle my fancy, but I don't expect to find too many of them with the power of "The Lost Weekend."

Ray Milland (an actor who starred in several schlockfests at the end of his career, such as "Frogs") plays Don Birnam, a painfully insecure writer who just can't make his life work. Birnam quickly learned that the soothing balm of alcohol took the edge off his various phobias, but he just as quickly learned that drinking took the edge off his talent, too. For years, Birnam never wandered far from the neighborhood bar or the liquor store, secure in the knowledge that a bottle of rye was always within reach. His brother Wick not only financially supports his boozy sibling; he also covers for him when the drinking causes problems. Of course, Don doesn't care much about his brother one way or the other as long as he gets his shot of whisky when he needs it. Another problem for Don appears in the form of Helen St. James (played by an enormously cute Jane Wyman), a successful writer at Time magazine who accidentally met Don at the opera one night and has since latched on to him despite his chronic alcoholism. When Birnam isn't trying to outwit Wick or Helen, he's down at the local bar spouting alcoholic witticisms to Nat the bartender (played wonderfully by Howard Da Silva) and flirting with a beautiful barfly named Gloria. We learn most of the story through a flashback sequence told by Birnam as he ties on yet another massive drunk.

The film starts with a nervous Don packing for a weekend trip with brother Wick, where the two siblings hope to get out of New York City for a nice change of pace. Of course, Don doesn't want to go because he's not sure he can survive without ready access to booze. In fact, during this opening sequence we see Don hiding a bottle of whisky from his brother by hanging it from a piece of string outside his window. In order to start drinking, Birnam convinces Wick and Helen to go to a concert, a little piece of trickery that is only the beginning of the devious schemes hatched by Don throughout the film. Thus begins a downward spiral over the course of a four-day weekend, as Don resorts to outright theft, robbery, and beggary in order to secure just one more drink. This bender comes with a high price, though: Don suffers excruciating blackouts, nearly gets himself arrested, and ends up in the alky ward at the city asylum. The capper is Birnam's bout with the DTs in his apartment, an incident that reduces him to a shattered, screaming wreck. "The Lost Weekend" is a memorable experience.

Only a person who has never had a problem with alcohol would criticize some of Birnam's philosophical musings about drinking. There is a great bit of dialogue where Birnam tells Nat why he drinks, about how alcohol makes a person feel as though he or she is a great artist on top of the world. Believe me, this is how an alcoholic feels when they tie one on, at least in the early euphoric stages of the addiction. Birnam's enthrallment for rituals of drinking is also dead on; such as his fascination about the rings the shot glass leaves on the bar and the propensity to "see" liquor in the most mundane circumstances (look for the dancing raincoats with the rye bottle in the pocket). An alcoholic does not merely work at his trade part-time; the process of drinking is a full-time job built on a series of elaborate rituals that reinforce this nefarious addiction. "The Lost Weekend" captures the intricacies of alcoholism in a way few films ever have. Unfortunately, the movie lost some of its power due to some hokey effects and a conclusion that had me throwing my hands up in disbelief.

The DVD release is quite good for a film nearly sixty years old. There is a trailer and cast biographies included here, as well as a short bio for director Billy Wilder. The transfer looks pretty good, although I thought I saw a few scenes where certain parts of the picture looked a tad blurry. "The Lost Weekend" won four Oscars: Best Actor for Ray Milland, Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Director for Billy Wilder. As far as I can see, this movie deserves its accolades. If you haven't seen "The Lost Weekend," you are definitely missing out on a great film loaded with grim atmosphere, great dialogue, eerie background music, and excellent performances.

This movie appealed to me because of Milland's awesome use of the English language. He is a writer who, although spends most of the movie in turmoil, really has a way with words. You will really enjoy this movie! Accurate portrayal of the "town drunk".

Superb mellow drama about a drunk, Don Birman, played by Ray Milland, & his battle with the bottle over one week-end in New York City. Nobody is a drunk anymore. They are said to have a "substance abuse " problem.
There is little stigma attached to the problem today as compared to the self-loathing Milland felt & the repugnance the neighborhood & even his favorite bartender felt towards him. In fact, the long, fairly one-sided conversations with Nat the bartender, played by Howard de Silva, are some of the best scenes in the movie.
Brakett & Wilder took some chances in this ground-breaking movie. They fought the Hollywood studios who probably wanted it watered down & rendered more palatable. They didn't give in &, as a result, this was the best movie of the the year 1945. It was well deserved. Ray Milland also got an Oscar & he was never better. Jane Wyman does a fine job as his long suffering girl friend, Helen.
It is unbelievable that that kind of woman, a real lady, would put up with a loser like that for so long. But after all, this is a movie. A pat ending that doesn't matter at all. The combination of gritty, street level scenes of New York City, the noir atmosphere & black & white filming all combine to make this one of the best aging movies, still relavent, I've seen in a long time.

Don Birnam, an want-to-be writer with writer's block, is ecstatic when his brother Wick finally leaves their apartment for a long weekend in the country. Free of the constant watching, he is incredibly happy and feels even better after the second drink. Throughout the five days, Don drinks, makes and forgets promises, discovers a brilliant idea for writing and forgets it just as quickly, loses track of time. His mind takes him on a guilt-ridden trip through past experiences and hallucinations. He even awakens after a spill down the stairs to find himself in the alcoholic wing of a sanitarium.

Billy Wilder's film adaptation of the novel by Charles Jackson does a fine job of detailing what happens to someone in the grips of alcoholism: the desparate need, the hallucinations, the blackouts, etc. Ray Milland delivers one of the finest screen performances as Don, giving the impression that you are living every moment with Don, suffering his hallucinations and withdrawal, and thirsting for alcohol. This performance also earned him the Best Actor Academy Award. Jane Wyman is wonderful as Don's girlfriend Helen, who wants to see him through this terrible ordeal. Phillip Terry also gives a strong performance as Don's brother Wick, who wants to help Don by being the strong one, but always caves in, feeding Don's dependency.

For anyone who has read the book, certain aspects from the story have been removed and altered, but this in no way detracts from this portrait of a man in the throes of alcoholism. It's still a very potent and powerful film dealing with an almost taboo subject at the time. Highly recommended.

This movie which won 4 academy awards including best picture stars Ray Milland as a debonair drunk who hides alcohol in his apartment and cares more about booze than girls. Playin an aspiring writer, he meets the Jane Wyman character when his ticket stub gets inadvertently switched at the coat rack of a theater: he is perturbed because there is a bottle in its pocket. Even though it's Hollywood, and its dated, it's not easy to watch the Milland character miss his dates, go through delerium tremens, and sink socially because of his obsession with this sometimes-very-addictive legal drug. (The coat caper is rectified by the film's end.)

I can understand why the studio did not want to release "The Lost Weekend" in 1945: it's a gritty and realistic (sometimes horrifyingly so) account of an alcoholic's weekend binge. Going against years of movies that portrayed drunkeness as something cute and harmless, this movie pulls no punches in illustrating to what depths a man will stoop when he just has to have a drink.

There's a story told about the filming of "LW," in which another of Ray Milland's on-the-street takes were ruined when someone recognized him. Instead of asking for his autograph, though, the woman offered to bring him back to her apartment for a drink. She didn't believe him when he said he was making a movie about a drunk; she thought the actor was down on his luck and really *was* a drunk. Billy Wilder came out from behind the hidden camera and finally set her straight. This is a good illustration of the power of Milland's performance; his work is quite extraordinary. Jane Wyman as his girlfriend Helen does a good job with a small role, as does Phillip Terry as Don's brother Wick.

While the drama of the movie moves along at a fevered pitch, it really starts to build to a level of unbearable tension when Helen goes to retrieve her coat (which Don has stolen) from the pawnbroker, only to discover Don didn't trade it for money for booze, but rather a gun he had pawned earlier. After his earlier talk of putting a bullet through his head, the audience and Helen realize at the same time what his intentions are, and we find ourselves as anxious as Helen as she races back to his apartment. She gets there in time, and the two play a game of cat and mouse, warily stepping around each other as he tries to get her to leave, and she tries to get to the gun first.

After winding things up so tightly, though, the movie ends with an anti-climax: Helen gives Don her same old inspirational speech about his having the talent to make a go of it as a writer, and suddenly, this time he believes her, vowing once again (and we're to assume that this time it took) to give up drinking and make something of himself. He gives us a pat little explanation of his alcoholism, and ends by saying gee, he feels sorry for all those other drunks out in NYC that think they're fooling everyone. Fade to black.

I realize this is a typical Hollywood ending of the time (1945), with everything working out okay in the end, but I felt cheated. I had been so captivated by this true to life story, with nothing glossed over, that the ending didn't ring true at all. Strange as it may sound, I think I would have almost preferred Don to put a bullet in his head. It would have felt much more realistic than him basically saying, "You're right Helen, I will stop drinking and write that book," and with a snap of the fingers, put his drunken ways behind him.

This is my only complaint about the movie, and it is an extremely small one; don't let my thoughts about the ending stop you from watching this film. It is an astonishing movie even in this day and age, even more so when you consider it was made almost 60 years ago.

Billy Wilder electrified the film world in 1944 with his brutally realistic film about lust and greed, "Double Indemnity." Just one year later he reemerged with another compelling tale from life's dark side, "The Lost Weekend." In the 1945 Oscar sweepstakes "Weekend" exceeded his preceding breakthrough film by sweeping all the major categories of Best Film, Best Actor, with British star Ray Milland delivering his role of a lifetime, Best Director for the crafty Wilder,and Best Adapted Screenplay with Wilder sharing honors with longtime partner Charles Brackett from a hard-hitting bestseller penned by Charles Jackson.

The main action surrounds a fall weekend in which presumably recovering alcoholic Milland is to accompany brother Phillip Terry to Penn Station and a presumably quiet weekend in the country. Instead he sneaks out of his New York apartment and enters a journey into the bowels of hell. The haunting musical score by Miklos Rosza depicts the urgency of the moment, resembling that of his masterwork "Spellbound." The black and white photography is intentionally gray and brooding throughout, focusing on New York's streets. Milland experiences the ultimate in desperation, spending time in the city's drunk ward, observing hallucinations in the form of a rat on his wall and vultures flying overhead, appropriate symbols of his desperation state, and failing to obtain needed alcoholic succor at a critical interval due to the closing of liquor stores due to the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday.

While Milland is superb in his presentation of a frightened would be novelist whose cleverness makes it more difficult than ever to keep his sought after rye whiskey away from him, a constellation of talented players assist in generating a bona fide Hollywood classic. Phillip Terry plays his loving, brooding brother with just the proper measure of anger merging with frustration. Jane Wyman is excellent as his sensitively attuned, intelligent girlfriend determined to spare him from ultimate self-destruction. Howard di Silva plays the outwardly hard-bitten, inwardly caring bartender with consummate skill. He emerges with one of the film's most memorable lines when, after pouring Milland a drink, he exclaims, "If you had enough money you'd kill yourself in a month." Doris Dowling is brilliant as a lonely prostitute living off the largesse of lonely older men who dreams of a better life and romance with Milland, who seeks to borrow money from her when his liquor and financial resources vanish.

Wilder proves in this film, as he did earlier with "Double Indemnity" and later with "Sunset Boulevard" and "The Apartment" that he was one of the cinema's reigning masters of the rugged, hard-edged side of human experience. This is a cannot miss dramatic masterpiece which never fails to find the mark.

It's hard to believe that this movie was produced in 1945, a year which introduced Americans to the twin horrors of the Nazi concentration camps and the effects of the atomic bomb. Although the later two concerns have been greatly distanced from our current social and political conscienceness, the widespread plague of alcoholism remains painfully relevant.

Being a recovering alcoholic myself, I am amazed at how openly Bily Wilder shows us the uglier sides of the alcoholic personality: the lying, the stealing, the self-righteous anger towards anyone or anything that interferes with our drinking. This movie goes WAY outside the comfort zone of American society at that time. The fact that it was a box office success and won 4 Oscars cknowledges that, even then, America knew that it had a problem of epidemic proportions on its hands.

All of the grim realities of a binge are portrayed here: the blackouts, the depression, the panic, even the DTs. Ray Milland gives the performance of his life in the Lost Weekend, a man perched on the perimeter of his own damaged psyche. This film, much more than many of the preachy videos curently employed in treatment centers, can help a struggling alcoholic to take a hard lok in the mirror, and possibly help them want to make a change for the better.

Several modern films may capture the details of alcoholism more acurately (Leaving Las Vegas tops the list), but none of these would ever have been made without the groundwork laid by The Lost Weekend.

The best being the 'Days of Wine and Roses'. However this movie is a great movie about the relationship of a person and their alcohol. It is like a love affair.

'Leaving Las Vegas' is a good portrait of the end, but this movie explains better the relationship.