The Lost Weekend
1945
**½
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling, Frank Faylen, Mary Young, Anita Sharp-Bolster, Lillian Fontaine, Lewis L. Russell
Don Birnam, a destitute writer, grapples with his addiction and sense of failure. Only his loving girlfriend Helen can stop him from drinking himself to death. Billy Wilder won Academy Awards for co-writing and directing this harrowing but monotonous and over-dramatic depiction of alcoholism. Birnham has no redeeming features and his dedication to drinking is all-encompassing, and yet his girl is determined to save him. Ray Milland also won an Oscar for his strong lead performance. Adapted from Charles R. Jackson's 1944 novel.
