Director: Billy Wilder
Production Company: Paramount
"We're both trying, Don; you're trying not to drink and I'm trying not to love you." - Helen St James
Setting
New York, United States
The Plot
Based on the novel by Charles R Jackson, the film follows Don Birnam, an alcoholic writer who has writer's block when he's sober and doesn't even try when he's drunk. Tricky. We meet his two alter-egos 'Don the Drunk' and 'Don the Writer'; we also meet the people in his world, of both positive and negative influence.
The Review
We meet Don ten days into his sobriety, or so he says with a whiskey bottle secretly hanging out his window, and heading away for a weekend with his brother. This turns out to be a weekend alone on a desperate bender of drinking, stealing, philosophising and doing anything to find one more drink. Don turns out to be a very lucky man having a girlfriend in Helen who stands by him no matter what. We gain an understanding of how deep his issues go, he tells how he intended suicide on his 30th birthday but pawned his gun so he could have a drink first...so neither of his alter-egos are thinkers but ironically this saved his life.
The Lost Weekend gives an honest and realistic angle to alcoholism, despite his flaws I did sympathise with Don due to his genuineness and obvious inner turmoil. He pours his heart out to his bartender friend Nat [Howard Da Silva] who seems to be torn between running the bar and making money by selling him drinks, and encouraging him to give up the drink. In here Gloria [Doris Dowling] makes an entrance with her "loathsome abbreviations" such as 'natch' and 'ridic', she and Don clearly have history we don't know about; she becomes a short sub-plot as a ghost of the past luring him back to his old lifestyle that doesn't really go anywhere. Now I'm not one to gossip but she was also director Billy Wilder's mistress off-set, wonder how she landed the part eh?
I'm accustomed to seeing alcoholic characters has either bad/violent or comical in films, this is the first one I've seen solely based around the character and showing all aspects of his life. Far from comical, the genuine performances show the level of destruction the disease can cause not only to the person but those around him, and how influential one determined friend can be if they refuse to give up.
The Lost Weekend gives an honest and realistic angle to alcoholism, despite his flaws I did sympathise with Don due to his genuineness and obvious inner turmoil. He pours his heart out to his bartender friend Nat [Howard Da Silva] who seems to be torn between running the bar and making money by selling him drinks, and encouraging him to give up the drink. In here Gloria [Doris Dowling] makes an entrance with her "loathsome abbreviations" such as 'natch' and 'ridic', she and Don clearly have history we don't know about; she becomes a short sub-plot as a ghost of the past luring him back to his old lifestyle that doesn't really go anywhere. Now I'm not one to gossip but she was also director Billy Wilder's mistress off-set, wonder how she landed the part eh?
I'm accustomed to seeing alcoholic characters has either bad/violent or comical in films, this is the first one I've seen solely based around the character and showing all aspects of his life. Far from comical, the genuine performances show the level of destruction the disease can cause not only to the person but those around him, and how influential one determined friend can be if they refuse to give up.
The Slap
Mr Brophy the bottle shop owner, he knew Don was drying out and was asked not to sell him any liquor. Two bottles of whiskey later...
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