Trailer
Plot summary
Don Birnam is a New York writer whose ambition and productivity have been undermined by drink. His brother Wick and girlfriend Helen have kept him sober for ten days and arranged a weekend in the country, and on Thursday the two pack for the trip. Helen mentions a concert that afternoon, so Don suggests that Wick go with her and the brothers take a later train. A bottle Don hid outside the window was meant for his suitcase, but Wick finds it and pours it down the drain. Believing the apartment holds no liquor and that Don has no money, Helen and Wick leave for the concert. Don finds the ten dollars their cleaning lady was to receive, buys two bottles of rye on his way to Nat's Bar, and loses track of time there.
Cast
- Andy Andrewsas Alcoholic (uncredited)
Show all 20 cast
- Jess Lee Brooksas (uncredited)
- James Conatyas Man in Nightclub Washroom (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Lost Weekend (1945)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The liquor industry campaigned against the film before release: Allied Liquor Industries warned Paramount that anti-drinking groups would use it to reinstate prohibition, and liquor interests allegedly enlisted gangster Frank Costello to offer Paramount $5 million to buy the negative and burn it. Wilder quipped that he would have burned it himself for that money.
- Wilder and his crew used hidden cameras, placed behind boxes or in the back of trucks, to capture Milland walking up 3rd Avenue among actual pedestrians unaware a film was being made. The production also had unprecedented permission to film inside Bellevue Hospital in the alcoholic ward, a request that would be denied to future films.
- A preview audience laughed at what they considered Milland's overwrought performance and the studio considered shelving the film; the print had temporary upbeat jazz instead of Miklós Rózsa's score, which was among the first to feature the theremin. With the score in place and the last scene reshot, reactions turned favorable.
- Wilder was drawn to the material after working with Raymond Chandler on the screenplay for Double Indemnity: Chandler was a recovering alcoholic, and the stress and tumultuous relationship during the collaboration caused him to start drinking again. Wilder made the film partly to try to explain Chandler to himself.
- It shared the Grand Prix at the first Cannes Film Festival, making it one of only four films, with Marty, Parasite and Anora, to win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the highest award at Cannes.
- Wilder originally wanted Jose Ferrer for the role of Don, but he turned it down; Charles Brackett's first choice for Helen was Olivia de Havilland, who was barred from any film by a lawsuit, and Katharine Hepburn and Jean Arthur were also said to have been considered.
