Review of The Lost Weekend (1945) by Sarah O — 29 Apr 2011

I watched this movie because I was intrigued by the trailer on TCM. The trailer did not give much information, but said it would be a movie people would never forget and would continue to talk about. I can see why this movie might have shocked people at the time - it is frank & it is extreme. I don't know if these qualities translate into today's time, as I thought it was too melodramatic.

Ray Milland plays a guy who wants to be a writer, but his dependence on the bottle prevents him from doing anything, except drinking. There is nothing this guy won't do to get his next fix - steal money from the maid, steal a woman's purse at the bar, mooch off his brother for shelter and food, hide bottles of booze in the apartment, etc. Milland's brother & girlfriend contend that they have tried "everything" to cure him of this illness but nothing works. Seems that the DTs when Milland was in the hospital seemed to work, but that did not last very long.

My favorite scene was the bat fighting the mouse crawling out of the wall in MIlland's apartment - there's a certain charm to those vintage special effects. While this movie was probably good back then, I just couldn't get into it all that much, even though I did sit through the whole thing.