The Lost Weekend

An alcoholic writer hits bottom over the course of a booze-filled weekend.

The Lost Weekend was quite controversial when it was released in 1945. Granted, it has lost some of its edge in light of films like Leaving Las Vegas, but it’s still pretty powerful.

Ray Milland gives the performance of his career as a tortured alcoholic who has to hit rock bottom before he can turn his life around. Director Billy Wilder carefully balances the need to make Milland’s character likable, but at the same time repulsive. It’s a fine line but Wilder walks it with ease.

The movie’s only real weakness is the era in which it was made. You get the feeling Wilder wanted to go farther, to show more of Milland’s fall to the bottom, but 1945 audiences just weren’t up for it. Still, sixty plus years later, the film is still relevant, and that hallucination sequence is pretty creepy, even if that bat is clearly on wires.