The Lost Weekend is a 1945 motion picture directed by Billy Wilder for Paramount Pictures, starring Ray Milland, Jane Wyman and Phillip Terry. The film was based on a novel of the same title by Charles R. Jackson about a writer who drinks heavily out of frustration over the accusation that he had an affair with one of his buddies while in college. The reference to the gay affair is removed in the film, and the main character's descent into an alcoholic binge is blamed on writer's block.

It was one of the first film scores to use the theremin, a musical instrument, which was used to create the pathos of the disease of alcoholism. This movie also made famous the "character walking toward the camera as neon signs pass by" camera effect.

Ray Milland stars as alcoholic writer Don Birnam in Billy Wilder's first unabashedly dramatic film, and one of the first to deal in such painstaking detail with the disease of alcoholism. Don shares an apartment in New York City in the 1940s with his brother Wick (Phillip Terry) who has his hands full trying to deal with his brother's drinking problem. One night, Don encourages his brother to take his girlfriend Helen St. James (Jane Wyman) to hear some music only so that he can be out from under their watchful eyes. Taking the money left for the maid, he goes out to buy some liquor, stashing one bottle in the chandelier. When he goes to the bar the next day, Nat (Howard Da Silva), the owner berates him for treating his girlfriend badly and warns him that he's on a path toward death. Don returns to the apartment to try to work on his novel "The Bottle," but consumed by self-doubt, goes to another bar, and steals a woman's purse to buy a drink. As the weekend wears on, his spiral downward continues apace.

Although dated in some respects, the film's unadorned portrait of the relentless torture that is alcoholism still packs a powerful punch thanks to Wilder's sharp script, the deep-focus camerawork of John Seitz, and a career performance by Ray Milland.

"I'm not a drinker--I'm a drunk." These words, and the serious message behind them, were still potent enough in 1945 to shock audiences flocking to The Lost Weekend. The speaker is Don Birnam (Ray Milland), a handsome, talented, articulate alcoholic. The writing team of producer Charles Brackett and director Billy Wilder pull no punches in their depiction of Birnam's massive weekend bender, a tailspin that finds him reeling from his favorite watering hole to Bellevue Hospital. Location shooting in New York helps the street-level atmosphere, especially a sequence in which Birnam, a budding writer, tries to hock his typewriter for booze money. He desperately staggers past shuttered storefronts--it's Yom Kippur, and the pawnshops are closed. Milland, previously known as a lightweight leading man (he'd starred in Wilder's hilarious The Major and the Minor three years earlier), burrows convincingly under the skin of the character, whether waxing poetic about the escape of drinking or screaming his lungs out in the D.T.'s sequence. Wilder, having just made the ultra-noir Double Indemnity, brought a new kind of frankness and darkness to Hollywood's treatment of a social problem. At first the film may have seemed too bold; Paramount Pictures nearly killed the release of the picture after it tested poorly with preview audiences. But once in release, The Lost Weekend became a substantial hit, and won four Oscars: for picture, director, screenplay, and actor. --Robert Horton

Academy Awards

At the 18th Academy Awards, The Lost Weekend received seven nominations, from which it won four awards.

• Awards:
• Best Picture - Paramount Pictures (Charles Brackett, producer)
• Best Director - Billy Wilder
• Best Actor - Ray Milland
• Best Writing - Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder
• Nominations:
• Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - John F. Seitz
• Best Original Music Score - Miklós Rózsa
• Best Film Editing - Doane Harrison

Cannes Film Festival

This film also shared the 1945 Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival. To date, The Lost Weekend and Marty (1955) are the only films ever to win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Palme d'Or.

Cast

Ray Milland as Don Birnam

Jane Wyman as Helen St. James

Phillip Terry as Wick Birnam

Howard Da Silva as Nat

Doris Dowling as Gloria

Frank Faylen as 'Bim' Nolan

Mary Young as Mrs. Deveridge

Anita Sharp-Bolster as Mrs. Foley

Lillian Fontaine as Mrs. Charles St. James

Frank Orth as Opera Cloak Room Attendant

Lewis L. Russell as Charles St. James

Gene Ashley as Male nurse

Walter Baldwin as Man from Albany

Harry Barris as Piano Player at Harry & Joe's

Ian Begg as Bit part

Jess Lee Brooks as Bit Part

David Clyde as Dave

James Conaty as Man in Nightclub Washroom

Willa Pearl Curtis as Mrs. Wertheim's assistant

Helen Dickson as Mrs. Frink

Franklyn Farnum as Concert Attendee

Byron Foulger as Shopkeeper

John Garris as Opera singer

Jayne Hazard as M.M.

Ted Hecht as Man with bandaged ear

Ernest Hilliard as Headwaiter

Earle Hyman as Smoking Man

Jerry James as Male nurse

Karl 'Karchy' Kosiczky as Baby

Eddie Laughton as Mr. Brophy

Perc Launders as Doorman

Audrey Long as Cloak room attendant

Theodora Lynch as Opera singer

William Meader as Hardware man

James Millican as Nurse

Frank Mills as Drunk in Alcoholic Ward

Pat Moriarity as Irishman

William Newell as Liquor store proprietor

William O'Leary as Irishman

Peter Potter as Shaky and Sweaty

Mark Power as Bit part

Stanley Price as Fruit clerk

Craig Reynolds as George

Lester Sharpe as Jewish man

Lee Shumway as Guard

Sophie as Mrs. Deveridge's dog

Douglas Spencer as Beetle

Al Stewart as Mattress man

Bunny Sunshine as Little girl

Harry Tenbrook as Drunk in Alcoholic Ward

Fred 'Snowflake' Toones as Washroom Attendant at Harry & Joe's Bar

Emmett Vogan as Doctor

Max Wagner as Mike

Milton Wallace as Pawnbroker with Helen's Coat

Bertram Warburgh as Jewish man

Gisela Werbisek as Mrs. Wertheim

Crane Whitley as Waiter at Harry & Joe's Bar

Ernest Whitman as Black man talking to self

Harry Wilson as Drunk Tank Voices

Isabel Withers as Woman in Front of Pawn Shop

Directed by
Billy Wilder 

Writing credits
Charles R. Jackson (novel)

Charles Brackett (screenplay) and
Billy Wilder (screenplay)

Produced by
Charles Brackett - producer

Original Music by
Miklós Rózsa

Cinematography by
John F. Seitz 

Art Direction by
Hans Dreier 
A. Earl Hedrick

Set Decoration by
Bertram C. Granger

Costume Design by
Edith Head 

Makeup Department
Wally Westmore - makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Charles C. Coleman - assistant director

Art Department
Gene Lauritzen - construction coordinator

Sound Department
Stanley Cooley - sound recordist
Joel Moss - sound recordist

Special Effects by
Gordon Jennings - special photographic effects
Loyal Griggs - special effects assistant

Visual Effects by
Farciot Edouart - process photography

Editorial Department
Doane Harrison - editorial supervisor

Music Department
Sidney Cutner - orchestrator
Dr. Samuel Hoffman - musician: theremin
George Parrish - orchestrator
Leo Shuken - orchestrator
Victor Young - musical director
Eugene Zador - orchestrator

Other crew
Dr. George Thompson - medical advisor