Billy Wilder’s first Academy Award wins came for directing and writing (with Charles Brackett) The Lost Weekend. The film concerns Don Birnam (Ray Milland), a writer living in New York and suffering from alcoholism. His brother (Phillip Terry) plans to take him to the country to help him sober up but Birnam angers him, so he ends up being left alone for the weekend. His girlfriend, Helen (Jane Wyman), is concerned but busy with her work. Birnam goes on a bender and spends the weekend drinking, recounting his life, having serious problems with his health and, nearly, the law. Helen is the only person left at the end to pull him away from the seduction of alcoholism.

One of the first great films about alcoholism, and certainly the first to be honored with Academy Awards, The Lost Weekend holds up well. Milland doesn’t overplay the intoxicated scenes and manages to convey pathos in spite of his obvious faults. The spiral that Birnam finds himself in is convincing and frightening. Alcoholics Anonymous was a new organization in the 1940s and the film suggests that, with Prohibition over and alcohol widely available again, new ways of addressing the problem of drinking were being considered. At one point Wyman pleads with Milland’s brother to not abandon him “because you wouldn’t abandon someone with heart problems.” Alcoholism as a disease was about to arrive. Wilder’s film is excellent and is recommended for those interested in alcoholism and classic Hollywood films; truthfully, it deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible.  ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰.

MJM  02-15-2012