The Lost Weekend

1945
Approved
1h 41m

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

41K

YOUR RATING

Ray Milland, Doris Dowling, Phillip Terry, and Jane Wyman in The Lost Weekend (1945)

Play trailer2:08

1 Video

99 Photos

Film Noir Drama

The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout.The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout.The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four-day drinking bout.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

41K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 4 Oscars
- 16 wins & 3 nominations total

Videos1

Trailer 2:08

The Lost Weekend

Photos103

Top cast67

Edit

Ray Milland

Don Birnam

Jane Wyman

Helen St. James

Phillip Terry

Wick Birnam

Howard Da Silva

Doris Dowling

Gloria

Frank Faylen

'Bim' Nolan

Mary Young

Mrs. Deveridge

Anita Sharp-Bolster

Mrs. Foley
(as Anita Bolster)

Lilian Fontaine

Mrs. St. James

Frank Orth

Opera Cloak Room Attendant

Lewis L. Russell

Mr. St. James

Andy Andrews

Alcoholic
(uncredited)

Gene Ashley

Male Nurse
(uncredited)

Walter Baldwin

Man from Albany
(uncredited)

Harry Barris

Pianist at Harry & Joe's
(uncredited)

Ian Begg

Undetermined Secondary Role
(uncredited)

Eddie Borden

Drunk in Alcoholic Ward
(uncredited)

Jess Lee Brooks

Hospital Patient
(uncredited)

Director
- Billy Wilder
Writers
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Best Picture Winners by Year

See the complete list of Best Picture winners. For fun, use the "sort order" function to rank by IMDb rating and other criteria.

See the complete list

List

More like this

8.1

Ace in the Hole

7.2

Gentleman's Agreement

7.0

Going My Way

7.4

All the King's Men

7.6

Mrs. Miniver

7.8

You Can't Take It with You

7.6

From Here to Eternity

7.7

Marty

7.1

The Life of Emile Zola

7.6

Hamlet

7.6

Mutiny on the Bounty

7.3

Grand Hotel

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
Billy Wilder claimed the liquor industry offered Paramount Pictures $5 million not to release the film; he also suggested that he would have accepted had they offered it to him personally.

Goofs
When the waiter gives Don the check at Harry & Joe's and he reaches for it, the glass, ashtray, napkin, and cigarette all change position between camera shots.

Quotes
[Nat moves to wipe away the circle of whisky from Don Birnam's glass]
Don Birnam: Don't wipe it away, Nat. Let me have my little vicious circle. You know, the circle is the perfect geometric figure. No end, no beginning.

Connections
Edited into Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)

Soundtracks
La Traviata
(1853) (uncredited)
Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
Libiamo ne' lieti calici (Drinking Song) Performed by John Garris and Theodora Lynch with The San Francisco Opera Company

User reviews197

Review

Featured review

9/10

This is on my list of 50 best of all time....

The script and score are superb and the acting flawless. Ray Milland is riveting in the role of a man who is as consumed by alcohol as it is consuming him. He lives and breathes for it and all around him become secondary including his long suffering girlfriend.

There is always a girl like this in the life of a good looking useless purposeless alcoholic kept afloat by either a wife or other family member, in this case a brother who pays the bills and tries to sober him up and dry him out periodically.

The score is relentless and highly avant Gard for its time, featuring music normally backing sci-fi flicks. Some of the scenes are profoundly frightening, his stay in the drunk tank with a sadistic feminine male nurse outlining all the horrors that await him and his DTs which feature a bat biting the head off a bird.

Very well done. I felt the ending was a little too pat, that would be my only fault with this.

9 out of 10. Excellent.