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The Lost Weekend (1945)

Not Rated | | Drama, Film-Noir | January 1946 (USA)
The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout.

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(from the novel by), (screen play) | 1 more credit »
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Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
...
...
...
Nat
...
...
Mary Young ...
Mrs. Deveridge
...
Mrs. Foley (as Anita Bolster)
Lilian Fontaine ...
Mrs. St. James
...
Opera Cloak Room Attendant
Lewis L. Russell ...
Mr. St. James

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Storyline

Don Birnam, long-time alcoholic, has been "on the wagon" for ten days and seems to be over the worst; but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother Wick and girlfriend Helen, he begins a four-day bender. In flashbacks we see past events, all gone wrong because of the bottle. But this bout looks like being his last...one way or the other. Written by Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

The screen dares to open the strange and savage pages of a shocking bestseller! See more »

Genres:

Drama | Film-Noir

Certificate:

Not Rated | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

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Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

January 1946 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Días sin huella  »

Box Office

Budget:

$1,250,000 (estimated)
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Company Credits

Production Co:

 »
Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

(Western Electric Recording)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1
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Did You Know?

Trivia

On March 10, 1946 - three days after winning the Academy Award - Ray Milland appeared as a guest on a radio broadcast of "The Jack Benny Show." In a spoof of The Lost Weekend (1945), Ray and Jack Benny played alcoholic twin brothers. Phil Harris - who normally played Jack Benny's hard-drinking bandleader on the show - played the brother who tried to convince Ray and Jack to give up liquor. ("Ladies and gentlemen," said an announcer, "the opinions expressed by Mr. Harris are written in the script and are not necessarily his own.") In the alcoholic ward scene, smart-aleck Frank Nelson played the ward attendant who promised Ray and Jack that they would soon start seeing DT visions of strange animals. When the DT visions appeared (with Mel Blanc providing pig squeals, monkey chatters, and other animal sound effects), Ray chased them off. "Ray, they're gone!" Benny shouted. "What did you do?" Milland replied, "I threw my Oscar at them!" See more »

Goofs

Amount of rye in shot glass changes. When bartender Nat pours Don Birnam's first drink, the shot glass is approximately 75% full as seen over bartender's left shoulder. Birnam lifts glass, but does not drink. Cut to camera over Birnam's right shoulder looking at bartender. As Birnam leans away from bar, glass is now filled almost to brim. See more »

Quotes

Don Birnam: Love is the hardest thing in the world to write about. It's so simple. You've gotta catch it through details, like the early morning sunlight hitting the gray tin of the rain spout in front of her house, the ringing of a telephone that sounds like Beethoven's Pastorale, a letter scribbled on her office stationary that you carry around in your pocket because it smells like all the lilacs in Ohio.
Don Birnam: Pour it, Nat!
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Connections

Referenced in M*A*S*H: Your Hit Parade (1978) See more »

Soundtracks

La Traviata
(1853) (uncredited)
Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
Libiamo ne' lieti calici (Drinking Song) Performed by John Garris and Theodora Lynch with The San Francisco Opera Company
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Frequently Asked Questions

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User Reviews

 
Textbook drama about addiction powerfully told...
2 March 1999 | by (Philadelphia, PA) – See all my reviews

From the first shot of a bottle hanging from a drunk's apartment, we realize we are about to see a clever addict and a weekend of his demented exploits. Ray Milland has an honest face, not unlike Jimmy Stewart's, however, with this character it is only skin-deep. The great thing about his performance and the film as a whole, is that his face will gradually change, becoming dark and chilly, just like Stewart's in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Stewart had lost his life momentarily. Milland has lost his soul to the bottle and he will stop at nothing to quench his thirst.

This really is a textbook example of the alcoholic's lies and schemes, a precursor to LEAVING LAS VEGAS, although there are people in this film who care about the drinker from the beginning. He just can't stop and we start to lose whatever sympathy we had for him because of how he treats other people. This is a drunk with a sober man wanting to come out, but Wilder's script dives deeply into the unpredictable outcomes of most alcoholics.

LOST WEEKEND was innovative and was almost never released because test audiences could not take the film's realism. The hospital sequence retains its horror, and Milland's withdrawal-induced hallucination of a rat in the wall was like him looking in the mirror. See this movie and you will come away with a completely informed and scary anthology of the antics of a hopeless alcoholic. This is amazing considering it came out of the old Hollywood system.


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