The Lost Weekend

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The Lost Weekend

1945,

1h 41m,

Drama

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97%

74 Reviews

Tomatometer

90%

5,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

97%

Tomatometer

74 Reviews

90%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

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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Pauline Kael

The New Yorker

Jul 28, 2022

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.

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Marjory Adams

Boston Globe

Feb 3, 2022

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.

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Ida Belle Hicks

Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com

Feb 3, 2022

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

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Diana Tuova

Spotlight on Film

Aug 26, 2024

4.5/5

More than 70 years after its initial release, the movie still mesmerises the audience with its performances, painting probably the most heartfelt and realistic picture of someone battling an alcohol addiction.

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Mark Johnson

Awards Daily

Jun 27, 2023

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.

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Edwin F. Melvin

Christian Science Monitor

Aug 18, 2022

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

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Leia P

Apr 11, 2019

Though Ray Milland's acting brings the film down because he was a bad casting choice, the rest of the film is phenomenal. For a 40s film to address all of these modern and still relevant issues surrounding addiction such as the theft and how your friends and family are treated is amazing. When you need a fix it feels like the end of the world will come if you don't get it and sometimes you feel like you can barely walk and when you finally have your fix you are on cloud nine and feel like everything that you couldn't do before is possible. Except it doesn't last, and then you are less able to function than you were before the fix. Great movie and it really deserved the Best Picture award it got.

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Draco L

Mar 17, 2019

A great film, and a great performance by Ray Milland. Groundbreaking at the time, all of the techniques in the film, and its approach to a taboo subject such as alcoholism, have been integrated into the filmmaking that came after it.

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Harry S

Feb 20, 2019

Down and out, punch after punch, realistic even today of the selfishness consumption of alcoholism!

George L

Jun 2, 2018

well worth watching this film is.

Anakin S

Oct 4, 2017

Yes, the subject matter is dark, and at time a little hard to watch. But, it is presented so beautifully with so much care put in it, that it is well worth the watch. If only, it should be seen for Ray Millands amazing performance as an alcoholic who can't put down the bottle.

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Ron S

Aug 27, 2017

A very raw look at the possibilities of living with the disease of alcohol addiction.

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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

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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
Producer: Charles Brackett
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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