"The Lost Weekend"
*** 1/2 (out of ****)
Best Picture Oscar (1946)
Since we are in the month of February and the Oscars will be held near the end of the month I thought why not celebrate by reviewing past "Best Picture" Oscar winners? Though I have included some previous winners in my "Masterpiece Film Series" such as "Gone with the Wind, "The Best Years of Our Lives", "The Godfather" and "Casablanca". But this month I will devote more time to past winners. To start things off I have decided to review a film made by a director I have shamefully ignored so far, the great Billy Wilder.
How many filmmakers were/are as versatile as Billy Wilder? Every time I goes through his list of credits I sit there amazed. There was such diversity among his films. Probably best known for his comedies; "Some Like It Hot", "One, Two, Three" and his Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau collaborations, he also took many serious turns. He directed perhaps one of the all-time great noir films in "Double Indemnity", a WW2 POW story, "Stalag 17", courtroom dramas, "Witness for the Prosecution" and one of the most charming romantic comedies ever "Sabrina". How many filmmakers have so many classics in their credits?
Wilder, it is said, didn't consider himself a director. He thought of himself primarily as a screenwriter who directed his own films. Wilder did start off as a writer in German cinema. In those days he idolized another great filmmaker, Ernst Lubitsch. When Wilder came to America, after the Nazis started to gain power, he was teamed with another writer, Charles Brackett. One of Wilder's first American scripts was for an Ernst Lubitsch film, "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife". Wilder would write another script for Lubitsch the 1939 classic "Ninotchka" with Greta Garbo. Wilder and Brackett would continue their success with another 1939 classic comedy, "Midnight" with Don Ameche playing a Hungarian (don't ask me why).
When Wilder did decide to break out on his own and direct, he didn't disappoint. His 1942 comedy "The Major & the Minor" is just as good as any other comedy he directed. For a man so closely associated with comedy how on Earth did he get mixed up with "The Lost Weekend"?
Younger audiences may not realize this but when "The Lost Weekend" debuted in 1945 it was considered the most realistic portrait of alcoholism ever presented on the screen. Maybe for the times I can understand that, but, looking back on the film that statement seems more like a historical relic than truth. That is one of the few things which hurts this movie despite its good intentions.
When I first saw "The Lost Weekend" many, many years ago I thought it was good but actually a little boring. When I got the idea to devote this month to past Oscar winners I decided I wanted to watch this again. Now I'm older and have lived more. I'm not nor have I ever been an alcoholic but I've had my own problems with alcohol. Watching the film again I am able to find more of a connection with the film's lead character, Don Birnam (Ray Milland). I can understand his pain more. And while he does have some powerful moments, which are in a sense, realistic. Wilder always seems to keep some distance from going too deep. He breaks the flow of drama for moments of, believe it or not, dark comedy.
There have been other films dealing with alcohol. Two of the best I can instantly recall are Louis Malle's "The Fire Within". Maurice Ronet brings such intensity to the role that when we see him struggling to be around other people drinking we need a drink ourselves. The other film is Blake Edwards' "Days of Wine & Roses" with Jack Lemmon. That movie I think gives the viewer a better understanding of alcohol addiction.
"The Lost Weekend" stars Ray Milland as Don Birnam. He claims to have been sober for nine days. As the film starts he and his brother, Wick (Phillip Terry) are packing for a country side vacation. But Don has no intention of going. Hanging from outside his window, on a string, is a bottle of whisky. Don tries every way to get Wick out of the room long enough for him to pack the bottle. As the title may suggest the film is about a weekend in Don's life. Perhaps his worst weekend. If he really was on the wagon for nine days, Don makes up for lost time.
Clearly this story sounds dramatic and very serious. I already told you how the film was being marketed as a realistic portrait but there are times Wilder goes for humor. Take for example the film's most famous moment. It is a Saturday afternoon. Don is in desperate need of money so he can buy another bottle of whisky. He goes to a pawn shop to pawn his typewriter. Don has always wanted to be a writer but currently has been suffering from writer's block. The drinking he says helps his creative process. When he gets to the pawn shop it is closed. He goes to another, it is closed and another and another. Bewildered he asks if it is Sunday. Sunday he tells us is the worst day of the week. Shops are closed and bars don't open until 1pm because of church services. But it is not Sunday. It is Saturday. Wilder has a punch line coming. It is Yom Kippur. What does Yom Kippur have to do with pawn shops? Because it is a religious holiday everything is closed and according to "The Lost Weekend" all pawn shops are run by Jews.
Another moment shows us how Don met Helen St. James (Jane Wyman), the woman who still believes in him and stands by him. One day Don goes to the opera to see "La Traviata". During the "Drinking Song" number Don starts to lose it. If Bob Hope had been in the scene you'd laugh. He sees the characters on-stage drinking and the temptation is too strong for him. He remembers he has a bottle in his raincoat. Suddenly instead of actors on-stage all he sees is his raincoat. He rushes out to get his coat but finds his ticket has been mixed up and instead he is now holding a woman's coat. This sounds like a perfect set-up for "Bringing Up Baby".
Listen to Don's drunk speeches where he compares himself to Van Gogh, Horowitz and Jesse James. It is true drunks go into wild rants, well some of them anyway, and so in sense his ramblings are not too far fetched but it is the theatrical way in which Milland delivers the lines, it goes overboard into wild melodrama. It loses believability.
A possible problem I can see Wilder and his co-writer Brackett having is, drunks have always been played for comedy. Early comics used to test each other to see who could play a better drunk. W.C. Fields may be the best example. Chaplin was known for his drunk. In fact Mack Sennett said Chaplin played the greatest drunk he ever saw. Stan Laurel would frequently play a drunk as well. There are so many comedic opportunities with a drunk character that it seems Wilder is struggling to hold back and sometimes he gives into the temptation.
Another thing I don't like about the film is the score which was done by the Hungarian composer Miklos Rozsa. A theremin is used and it gives the film a science fiction feel to it. It sounds like something out of an Ed Wood movie. Theremins were becoming quite popular at the time and were used in sci-fi films often. Here though it seems more comedic than dramatic or suspenseful.
But I sound a little too critical of the film. I don't mean to. Ray Milland is good in the film, especially when you consider the times. And Milland was a good actor. I don't know how many people still appreciate him today but I've always thought highly of him. There was a time he was in several entertaining films. He and Wilder worked together previously on "The Major & the Minor", he was in Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder", a very good noir film "The Big Clock" and "Golden Earrings". But "The Lost Weekend" was his most celebrated role. He won an Oscar for his performance as well as a Golden Globe. He was never nominated for another performance.
Jane Wyman has too little screen time in my opinion to really make a great impact. The film is really a showcase for Milland. Still, she does what the part requires. She plays Don's backbone. Wyman was also an Oscar winner. She won for her performance in "Johnny Belinda" and was nominated on three other separate occasions. And she is probably known for being married to Ronald Reagan.
At the Oscars that year "The Lost Weekend" was up against Hitchcock's "Spellbound", the Frank Sinatra/Gene Kelly musical "Anchors Aweigh" and "Mildred Pierce. Part of me wishes "Pierce" would have won instead. That is a movie you can look forward to reading as part of my "Masterpiece Film Series".
"The Lost Weekend" walked out with the "Best Picture" Oscar and Wilder won a "Best Director" Oscar. He would win one more time for the 1960 film "The Apartment" which also won "Best Picture". And Milland won for acting.
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