Today’s movie is a drama with a scene that happens on September 7. Watch it tonight and enjoy.
THE LOST WEEKEND
Don Birnam and his brother Wick are getting set to go to the country for the weekend. Don is a drunk who has been on the wagon for ten days. When his girlfriend Helen shows up he convinces Wick to take her to a concert to which someone has given her two tickets. Wick thinks he has found all of Don’s hidden liquor and left him with no money to buy any, so it’s okay to leave him alone. However, Don steals the money Wick left to pay the cleaning lady. He immediately goes out to a bar to buy liquor. Wick and Helen return and find Don gone. Wick says he’s fed up and leaves for the country. Don returns to his apartment and sneaks in, dodging Wick and Helen. The next morning, on September 7, 1945 [22:04 to 28:40, 36:50 – 38:00, 49:50 – 59:07] he finds a note pinned to his door from Helen asking him to call her. Instead Don returns to the bar. He tells the bartender how he met Helen three years before at the opera. He and Helen start dating and Don stops drinking for a while because he’s so in love with her. When her parents come to New York to meet him, he overhears them discussing him. The anxiety of this causes him to start drinking again, but he confesses his alcohol problem to her. He reveals he’s suffering from severe self-doubt and he tries to scare Helen off, but she won’t go. Don leaves the bar and goes home to work on his novel. However, the need for alcohol gets to him. He can’t find the bottle he hid last night. He goes out to a bar and steals a woman’s purse to get money to pay the bar tab. She discovers the theft, but seeing he’s a drunk does not press charges. Back at his apartment he accidentally finds the bottle he hid and drinks it all. The next morning he wakes to the phone ringing, but he ignores it and goes out to pawn his typewriter to get money for booze. He can’t, as all the pawn shops are closed since it’s Yom Kippur. He meets Gloria who was attracted to him yesterday and she gives him some money. He falls down stairs and is knocked out. He wakes up the next day in the hospital detox ward. He manages to escape. Helen, who spent the night in the hallway outside Don’s apartment, is awakened by the landlady and leaves. Don steals a bottle of whiskey from a store. Back at his apartment he drinks the whole bottle while ignoring the phone. He starts to hallucinate. The landlady hears his screams and calls Helen. She stays in the apartment overnight. In the morning he runs away with her coat and pawns it in exchange for a gun. Helen tries to get the gun from him before he can kill himself. He wrestles it from her. The barkeep arrives and returns his typewriter that he left in the bar. She convinces Don to start writing a novel about his ‘Lost Weekend’.
One of the most realistic accounts of addiction ever filmed. Don will lie, cheat and steal to get alcohol. Fortunately for him he has at least one person who cares for him. Hopefully, he will be able to make a recovery.
At 1:04:29 he’s told it’s Saturday and on the same day at 1:06:07 that it’s Yom Kippur. This happened in 1945, when the date of Yom Kippur was Saturday, September 8. So the day before is the seventh.
Producer - Charles Brackett
Director - Billy Wilder
Screenplay - Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder
Awards – The film won the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor(Milland) and Best Screenplay Oscars. It was also nominated for the Best Black and White Cinematography, Best Music Score and Best Film Editing at the 18th Academy Awards.
Runtime – 1 hour 39 minutes
Released – November 16, 1945
Starring –
Ray Milland as Don Birnam
Jane Wyman as Helen St. James
Phillip Terry as Wick Birnam
Howard Da Silva as Nat
Doris Dowling as Gloria
Frank Faylen as 'Bim' Nolan
Mary Young as Mrs. Deveridge
Anita Bolster as Mrs. Foley
Lillian Fontaine as Mrs. St. James
Frank Orth as Opera cloak room attendant
Lewis L. Russell as Mr. St. James
Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015
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