The Lost Weekend

The storyThe lore 📖

Longtime alcoholic Don Birnam has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last – one way or another.

Don Birnam is a writer who has been sober for ten days, but his alcoholism still has a grip on him that he can't shake 😔. When his brother and girlfriend plan a weekend away, he slips off and spends four days drinking, lying, and desperately hunting for more, and it is wrecking his life. Real talk: this is not a vibe. It's a serious, honest look at addiction and the people who refuse to give up on him.

What critics & audiences sayThe receipts 🧾

Tomatometer 97% Fresh #10 of 98 winners

IMDb 7.8 44K votes #49 of 98 winners

TMDB 7.6 / 10

Famous linesLines living rent free

Quotes via Wikiquote

Filming locationsWhere they shot it 📍

• Third Avenue

  Manhattan, New York City

  Hidden cameras caught Ray Milland trudging up Third Avenue among real pedestrians who had no idea a film was being shot.

  Map ↗About this place ↗Source: Wikipedia · Production and notable features

• Bellevue Hospital

  Manhattan, New York City

  In an unprecedented move, the crew filmed inside the hospital's alcoholic ward, permission later films were denied.

  Map ↗About this place ↗Source: Wikipedia · Production and notable features

• Paramount Studios

  Hollywood, California

  Most of the film was shot here, including a replica of P. J. Clarke's, the tavern frequented by novelist Charles Jackson.

  Map ↗About this place ↗Source: Wikipedia · Production and notable features

Fun factsFacts that go hard 🤓

1. Liquor interests allegedly enlisted gangster Frank Costello to offer Paramount $5 million for the film's negative so they could burn it. Billy Wilder quipped that if they'd offered him $5 million, he would have.Wikipedia · Production and notable features
2. Billy Wilder was drawn to the story after co-writing Double Indemnity with Raymond Chandler, a recovering alcoholic whom the stressful collaboration drove back to drinking. Wilder made the film partly to explain Chandler to himself.Wikipedia · Production and notable features
3. To capture realism, Wilder hid cameras behind boxes and in trucks and filmed Ray Milland walking up Third Avenue in Manhattan among real pedestrians who had no idea a movie was being made.Wikipedia · Production and notable features
4. A preview audience laughed at Ray Milland's performance and the studio considered shelving the film, partly because the preview print had a temporary track of upbeat jazz instead of Miklós Rózsa's score.Wikipedia · Production and notable features
5. Miklós Rózsa's score was among the first to feature the theremin, using its eerie sound to convey the pathos of alcoholism.Wikipedia · Production and notable features
6. The Lost Weekend shared the Grand Prix at the very first Cannes Film Festival, making it one of only four films, with Marty, Parasite and Anora, to win both Best Picture and Cannes' top prize.Wikipedia · Cannes Film Festival
7. The production got unprecedented permission to film inside the alcoholic ward of New York's Bellevue Hospital, a request that would be denied to later films.Wikipedia · Production and notable features
8. Jose Ferrer turned down the role of Don Birnam, Olivia de Havilland was tied up in a lawsuit for the role of Helen, and Katharine Hepburn and Jean Arthur were reportedly also considered.Wikipedia · Production and notable features
9. Three days after winning his Oscar, Ray Milland spoofed the film on The Jack Benny Show. When asked how he chased off the DT hallucinations, he replied, "I threw my Oscar at them!"Wikipedia · Adaptations
10. Made on a budget of $1.25 million, The Lost Weekend grossed $11 million at the box office.Wikipedia · Box office performance