The Lost Weekend

The Lost Weekend

By

  • Genre: Drama
  • Release Date: 1945-11-29
  • Runtime: 101 minutes
  • : 7.6
  • Production Company: Paramount Pictures
  • Production Country: United States of America
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7.6/10
7.6
From 584 Ratings

Description

Don Birnam, a long-time alcoholic, has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last - one way or another.

Trailer

Reviews

  • Nutshell

    10
    By Nutshell
    One of Billy Wilder's best films, and certainly Ray Milland's best performance as he's cast against type playing a failed alcoholic author. Milland perfectly captures the despondent, manipulative and even criminal behavior of the lead character. More than 70 years after its release this film still packs a huge punch.

  • JPV852

    8
    By JPV852
    This Best Picture winner (also won for director, actor and screenplay) was decently acted, albeit a bit too theatrical (stage type) for my taste but still well made movie with what I assume is a realistic take on alcoholism (never drank myself) from director Billy Wilder. It is a bit optimistic in the end but still an engaging enough drama. **3.75/5**

  • CinemaSerf

    7
    By CinemaSerf
    A truly evocative tour de force from Ray Milland in this semi-autobiographical tale of four days in the life of writer Charles R. Jackson - characterised here as "Don Birnam" - whose life as a writer is frequently wrecked by his chronic alcoholism. Just when he might be on the wagon, however, his addiction becomes even more acute and he diverts $10 meant for their cleaner and goes on a massive bender reaching the depths of despair that reduce this potentially sensible, responsible adult to little more than a pathetic, begging and pleading shadow of a man craving his next shot. Milland well deserved his Oscar with some strong, though infrequent support from his brother Phillip Terry and his girlfriend Jane Wyman who are desperately trying to keep him from the path of self-destruction. Billy Wider provides us with an invasive study of the intimate struggle of a man out of control - the scenes where he is looking for an open pawnbrokers on Yom Kippur convey just how hard he has hit rock bottom superbly and effectively - and Miklós Rósza provides a magnificently bleak score to further embellish the mood. A cracking film.

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