Lost Weekend (The)

Genre: psychological drama (black and white) 

Director: Billy Wilder

Release: 1945

Studio: Paramount Pictures

Rating: -

MBiS score: 8.4/10

‟One's too many an' a hundred's not enough.”

New York City on a Thursday afternoon. Though he’s packing for a weekend in the country with his brother Wick, Don Birnam doesn’t really want to leave the Big Apple. And going to a matinee with his girlfriend Helen doesn’t tickle his fancy either. All he cares about is that bottle of liquor he’s hidden on the window ledge. Don, you see, is a dyed-in-the-wool alcoholic. With Ray Milland (Don), Phillip Terry (Wick), Jane Wyman (Helen St. James), Doris Dowling (Gloria), Frank Faylen (Bim Nolan), Howard Da Silva (Nat) and Mary Young (Mrs. Beveridge).

If you’re looking for a serious, note-perfect drama about alcoholism and its human cost, THE LOST WEEKEND is your safest bet. This old movie still resonates today because of its realistic depiction of an addicted man, the damage he causes to himself and to others and the efforts of friends and relatives to save him from the drink. With its thoughtful screenplay (based on a novel by Charles R. Jackson), sharp dialogues, world-class direction and great turns by Ray Milland and Jane Wyman, THE LOST WEEKEND has pleased experts and movie lovers the world over, racking up four Oscars and a Grand Prix in Cannes… no mean feat when you consider that American and international tastes in cinema are frequently at odds.  

Trust me, movie buffs. THE LOST WEEKEND is a mythical, mighty film everyone should see.

MBiS

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