"I'm not a drinker; I'm a drunk."
Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend (1945) still packs a punch. This grim portrayal of a man's descent into alcoholism won Best Picture, setting the standard for adult dramas.Author Don Birnam (Ray Milland) fights writer's block and alcoholism. When Don's brother Wick (Phillip Terry) arranges for a vacation, Don misses the train and stumbles around New York imbibing freely. He forfeits money, possessions and dignity as his drinking binge lasts through the weekend, unable to control himself. After fleeing a sanitarium, Don's so disgusted he contemplates suicide. It's up to girlfriend Helen (Jane Wyman) to set him straight.
One only need compare The Lost Weekend to contemporaries. Alcoholism was a source of fun, whether in The Thin Man or innumerable John Ford flicks; characters get tipsy, occasionally brawl, without lasting harm. Wilder and writer Charles Brackett don't sugarcoat Don's condition. He's a wreck isolated from friends and family through his drinking, unable to control himself. He pawns coats, even steals to feed his habit. Not until The Man with the Golden Arm would Hollywood explore addiction so frankly.
Charles R. Jackson's novel shows Don wrestling with sexual identity, but Weekend doesn't seem lesser for this omission. Don's crippling shame is palpable enough; unable to write or hold an ordinary job, he escapes through drink. Wick alternately covers for and rages at him; Helen grows exasperated with his relapses. Even a friendly bartender (Howard DaSilva) loses patience. "The two Dons," alcoholic and author, spar for dominance but it's a one-sided fight. Given the love of a good woman, author Don has a fighting chance.
Wilder's direction vividly summons Don's psychology. There's the montage of Don stumbling past bar signs and neon lights, in search of booze, or an opera hallucination. Or a visit to a sanitarium, with John F. Seitz's menacing shadows and shrieking patients showing Don's descent into hell. It culminates in a terrifying nightmare, Don envisioning a bat eviscerate a mouse. Miklos Rosza highlights the delirium with an off-kilter theremin score, recalling his work on Hitchcock's Spellbound
Ray Milland eschews his matinee idol roles for a layered performance, earning him Best Actor. Milland explores Don's inner torment, suggesting hopelessness through desperate tone and weighted gestures, a man trapped in a waking nightmare. Jane Wyman gives a career-best role, compelling in her hard-edged weariness. Phillip Terry, and Howard DaSilva play key supporting roles.
The Lost Weekend's success initiated a wave of impressive dramas: The Best Years of Our Lives, Gentleman's Agreement and All the King's Men. Postwar Hollywood had to confront hard truths about American life, and Billy Wilder captures one less topical than universal.