The Lost Weekend

Released Nov 16, 1945

1h 41m

Drama

List

97%

74 Reviews

Tomatometer

90%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Writer Don Birnam (Ray Milland) is on the wagon. Sober for only a few days, Don is supposed to be spending the weekend with his brother, Wick (Phillip Terry), but, eager for a drink, Don convinces his girlfriend (Jane Wyman) to take Wick to a show. Don, meanwhile, heads to his local bar and misses the train out of town. After recounting to the bartender (Howard da Silva) how he developed a drinking problem, Don goes on a weekend-long bender that just might prove to be his last.

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Critics Consensus

Director Billy Wilder's unflinchingly honest look at the effects of alcoholism may have had some of its impact blunted by time, but it remains a powerful and remarkably prescient film.

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Russ

Absolutely ludicrous. It plays like a one of the short films about drugs, alcohol, and, of course, sex, that was shoved down your throat at a high school assembly.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/05/24

Full Review

Alec C

This weekend begins a path of self-destruction for one alcoholic as his demons threaten to consume him! A sober look at the affects of alcoholism, low self-esteem, paranoia and suicide all through the eyes of one man as he begins a bender that might end with him dead. Surprisingly relevant today as it was all those years ago, this depressing drama manages to bring us down to our low points at every turn!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/31/23

Full Review

Kyle C

The isolation and frustration of addiction takes center stage in Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend. Its trials and morals are still as relevant as ever. Ray Milland earned his Academy Award playing a troubled writer wrestling with his demons, in an archetype performance that inspired countless other actors, like Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. This film is culturally significant and well worth the watch.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/24/23

Full Review

Anthony J

Dated doesn't begin to cover it. By today's standard, the drama is overblown, the acting mostly corny and the 'special effects' (DTs) pathetically cheap. Once a landmark film, now silly, dated cornball look at a serious issue.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Stephen C

I got lost in 01 hour: and 41 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The greatest 01 hour: and 41 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

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Billy Wilder

Director

Ray Milland

Don Birnam

Jane Wyman

Helen St. James

Howard Da Silva

Nat the Bartender

Phillip Terry

Wick Birnam

Doris Dowling

Gloria

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Pauline Kael

New Yorker

The whole thing is short on imaginative resonance; what it has is the Brackett-and-Wilder specialty -- a distinctive cruel (and sometimes cruelly funny) edge.

Jul 28, 2022

Full Review

Marjory Adams

Boston Globe

The Lost Week End is magnificent melodrama, a serious study into a disease which too often is delineated in ridiculous guise, and an absorbing attempt to show the misery of drink.

Feb 3, 2022

Full Review

Ida Belle Hicks

Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com

If Ray Milland doesn't get the Academy Award for his work in The Lost Week-end it will be a miscarriage of justice.

Feb 3, 2022

Full Review

Mark Johnson

Awards Daily

Billy Wilder shows why he is one of the all-time great directors and screenwriters with one intense and desperate moment after the next. Filled with acerbic and biting dialogue, Wilder and co-writer Charles Brackett’s script is among the best of its time.

Jun 27, 2023

Full Review

Edwin F. Melvin

Christian Science Monitor

It displays with pitiless realism the humiliation, the degradation and the horror experienced by an alcoholic.

Aug 18, 2022

Full Review

Dilys Powell

Sunday Times (UK)

Mr. Jackson's novel is not a masterpiece, but it is a brilliant experiment; and the team of Brackett and Wilder, co-writers and respectively, producer and director, have made of it a film which is often brilliant.

Aug 8, 2022

Full Review

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Synopsis

Writer Don Birnam (Ray Milland) is on the wagon. Sober for only a few days, Don is supposed to be spending the weekend with his brother, Wick (Phillip Terry), but, eager for a drink, Don convinces his girlfriend (Jane Wyman) to take Wick to a show. Don, meanwhile, heads to his local bar and misses the train out of town. After recounting to the bartender (Howard da Silva) how he developed a drinking problem, Don goes on a weekend-long bender that just might prove to be his last.

Director: Billy Wilder
Screenwriter: Charles R. Jackson, Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Paramount Pictures
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 16, 1945, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 29, 2016
Runtime: 1h 41m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.37:1)

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