The Lost Weekend

The Lost Weekend. 1945 Paramount Pictures, now owned and released to DVD by Universal Pictures.
Starring: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Holward Da Silva, Doris Dowling, Frank Faylen, Mary Young
Director: Billy Wilder
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A winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Billy Wilder, and Best Actor for Ray Milland.

New York writer Don Birnam (Milland) is an alcoholic, and the picture opens with Don supposedly not having a drink in ten days. He and his brother Wick (Birnam) are packing for a getaway in the country, up until Don's girl Helen St. James (Wyman) shows up. Don talks his brother into taking a later train out of town, and even urges him to go to a concert with Helen. Wick reluctantly agrees, but he has also taken care of Don's hidden bottles of liquor, and points out to Helen that he is broke. A desperate Don cons the cleaning lady out of her wages, and goes out to buy a couple of bottles, and then, missing the train quite deliberately by overstaying at Nat's Bar on Third Avenue. Wick intends to leave without him anyway, even if Helen is not a fan of the idea of leaving Don alone in the city for 96 hours.

Of course, Don goes off on the epic drunk of a lifetime, babbling about how he met Helen to Nat (Da Silva), and how he managed to stop drinking while seeing her, but started again after Helen's parents were overheard saying that they weren't impressed by him. Later on, Don finds himself stealing a woman's handbag for more money, but he luckily isn't arrested. He also fails to pawn his typewriter on Yom Kippur, and manages to get some money from an old acquaintance before falling down the stairs at another bar. He also spends a night in the drunk tank, overseen by "Bim" Nolan (Faylen), and suffering from the DTs. Don escapes after the staff is preoccupied with a more violent patient. Returning home, Helen meets him there, and she sticks by him, even after Don makes it clear he wants nothing to do with her again. Helen does manage to persuade Don to stop drinking, and concentrate instead on his novel.

Highly, highly recommended film.