The Lost Weekend is a 1945 Academy Award winning American drama film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman. The film was based on a novel of the same title by Charles R. Jackson about a writer who drinks heavily. In 2011, it was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The film recounts the life of an alcoholic New York writer, Don Birnam, over the last half of a six year period, and in particular on a weekend alcoholic binge. A shot of the Manhattan skyline to an apartment, with a whiskey bottle hung outside a window. Don and his brother Wick... are packing for a weekend vacation. Wick believes that Don, a recovering alcoholic, has been on the wagon for ten days. After Don's girlfriend Helen St. James arrives, Don urges his brother to take a later train, and urges him to go to a Barbirolli concert with Helen, while he collects his thoughts at home. Wick, having disposed of his brother's hidden supply of drink, reluctantly agrees, despite seeing Helen as his brother's girl. Helen, slightly mockingly, claims to be trying not to love Don while he is trying not to drink.
more
| Release date: | 1945 |
| Directed by: | Billy Wilder |
| Runtime: | 101 Minutes |
| Producer: | Charles Brackett |
| Editor: | Doane Harrison |
| Music by: | Miklós Rózsa |
| Cinematography: | John F. Seitz |
| Screenplay by: | Charles R. Jackson, Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder |
| Estimated budget: | $1,250,000 |