176: The Lost Weekend

US  101m  Dir: Billy Wilder 

Based on: The Lost Weekend by Charles R. Jackson (Novel)

Cinema has touched on alcoholism many times but no film has covered the subject as well as this one. 

Writer Don Birnam (Ray Milland) is an alcoholic and is due to go on a weekend away with his brother Wick (Phillip Terry). He delays departure in order to have a drink and this leads to a weekend-long bender where he desperately tries to find the money for his next drink, ends up in hospital and gets a gun in order to kill himself. Along the way, we learn how he became romantically involved with the respectable Helen (Jane Wyman) and how she stuck with him despite his alcoholism. 

Whilst there are elements about the setting that feel hugely of its time, the portrayal of alcoholism here is superb. Don is very likable and you feel great sympathy towards him. It excellently portrays the desperation of an addict to get their next hit and how they will go to extreme lengths to get it, even at the expense of their loved ones. It's fantastically well-observed. 

Director Billy Wilder increased the realistic feel by shooting parts of the film on location in New York City- he hid cameras in boxes and on the back of trucks and filmed Ray Milland staggering along the street next to pedestrians who had no clue that they would end up featuring in a Best Picture winner. Unusually the production managed to get permission to film in Bellevue Hospital's actual alcoholism ward. Before I knew this I thought that section didn't feel very realistic but clearly it was which is an unsettling thought.

The liquor industry hated this film and wrote to Paramount with the concern that anti-drinking groups would use the film to try to reinstate prohibition. Supposedly a gangster was hired to offer the studio $5 million to buy the film's negative so it could be burnt. It strikes me that you've probably done something right when an industry that has ruined so many people's lives try to use organised crime to get rid of the film. 

Due to the Hayes Production Code the film has a sort of happy ending where Don suddenly gets over his issue but anyone who has been close to someone with alcoholism knows it is never that easy. This film ought to have had a bleak ending and it feels wrong that it didn't get that.

A superb script and clever direction make this the definitive film about alcoholism even nearly eighty years later.