Billy Wilder’s first big Oscar winner holds up as fine work in every respect, and serves as evidence of the writer-director’s moviemaking instincts at a time when he could do no wrong. Starring Ray Milland as a self-destructive alcoholic, Wilder and Charles Brackett manage to retain much of the sordid truth and nightmarish horror of the ordeal of would-be writer Don Birnham, who ducks his guilty self-loathing by taking to the bottle. It’s still a harrowing experience, with a sharp emotional kick. This new remastered edition carries a commentary by Joseph McBride. Co-starring Jane Wyman, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling, Frank Faylen and Phillip Terry; the scary music is by Miklos Rozsa.
The Lost Weekend
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1945 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 101 min. / Street Date November 24, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling, Frank Faylen, Douglas Spencer,...
The Lost Weekend
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1945 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 101 min. / Street Date November 24, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling, Frank Faylen, Douglas Spencer,...
- 12/26/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“The DTs In High Definition”
By Raymond Benson
In 1945, Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend was a big deal. If it wasn’t the first Hollywood movie to portray alcoholism as a serious problem, then it was certainly the most visible and influential one.
In the latter 1940s, Hollywood’s output changed from the sunshine-feel good-entertainments that the Golden Age had produced in the 30s and early 40s. American GIs came home from the war, and many were disillusioned and cynical. The war was the catalyst for Americans to “grow up.” They were ready to accept more serious, darker fare. Thus, we got film noir—crime pictures that were full of angst and betrayals—and we got the “social problem film.” The latter tackled subjects that Hollywood had previously never touched—alcoholism, racism, anti-Semitism, government corruption, and drug abuse. Titles like Gentleman’s Agreement,...
“The DTs In High Definition”
By Raymond Benson
In 1945, Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend was a big deal. If it wasn’t the first Hollywood movie to portray alcoholism as a serious problem, then it was certainly the most visible and influential one.
In the latter 1940s, Hollywood’s output changed from the sunshine-feel good-entertainments that the Golden Age had produced in the 30s and early 40s. American GIs came home from the war, and many were disillusioned and cynical. The war was the catalyst for Americans to “grow up.” They were ready to accept more serious, darker fare. Thus, we got film noir—crime pictures that were full of angst and betrayals—and we got the “social problem film.” The latter tackled subjects that Hollywood had previously never touched—alcoholism, racism, anti-Semitism, government corruption, and drug abuse. Titles like Gentleman’s Agreement,...
- 11/30/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Billy Wilder directed Sunset Blvd. with Gloria Swanson and William Holden. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett movies Below is a list of movies on which Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder worked together as screenwriters, including efforts for which they did not receive screen credit. The Wilder-Brackett screenwriting partnership lasted from 1938 to 1949. During that time, they shared two Academy Awards for their work on The Lost Weekend (1945) and, with D.M. Marshman Jr., Sunset Blvd. (1950). More detailed information further below. Post-split years Billy Wilder would later join forces with screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond in movies such as the classic comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), the Best Picture Oscar winner The Apartment (1960), and One Two Three (1961), notable as James Cagney's last film (until a brief comeback in Milos Forman's Ragtime two decades later). Although some of these movies were quite well received, Wilder's later efforts – which also included The Seven Year Itch...
- 9/16/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
We’ve all had them; but I dare say not many like this as Joakim and Sam Hutchinson from Cinema Etc talk about Billy Wilders The Lost Weekend.
From Masters of Cinema:
Directed by Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot), this gut-wrenching adaptation of Charles Jackson’s The Lost Weekend horrified its studio, was rejected by test audiences, and was lobbied by temperance groups, yet went on to huge success and became the awards sensation of its year.
Ray Milland stars as Don Birnam, a New York author struggling with years of alcoholism and writer’s block. Trying to keep him on the path to rehabilitation are his straight-laced brother Wick (Philip Terry) and devoted long-time girlfriend Helen (Jane Wyman). When Don absconds from a country excursion, he embarks on a four-day binge, spiralling towards rock bottom.
Winner of the Grand Prix at the first ever Cannes Film Festival,...
From Masters of Cinema:
Directed by Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot), this gut-wrenching adaptation of Charles Jackson’s The Lost Weekend horrified its studio, was rejected by test audiences, and was lobbied by temperance groups, yet went on to huge success and became the awards sensation of its year.
Ray Milland stars as Don Birnam, a New York author struggling with years of alcoholism and writer’s block. Trying to keep him on the path to rehabilitation are his straight-laced brother Wick (Philip Terry) and devoted long-time girlfriend Helen (Jane Wyman). When Don absconds from a country excursion, he embarks on a four-day binge, spiralling towards rock bottom.
Winner of the Grand Prix at the first ever Cannes Film Festival,...
- 8/21/2015
- by Tom Jennings
- CriterionCast
At long last - the notorious rappin' TV ad for Eve of Destruction that boasted an awesomely cheesy rap song explaining the flick’s premise. Few who saw this commercial that ran for only two weeks leading up to the film's release in January 1991 have ever forgotten it. Hero... Before the clock hits zero!
It might be a 30-second commercial jingle rather than an actual song, and it isn’t even included in the movie; yet, this previously long lost promo is the epitome of what B-Sides is all about. Not since the Maniac Cop 2 closing credits rap song has there been b-movie hip hop greatness of this caliber.
Charles Jackson a.k.a. C.J. Skyy and Michael Haney a.k.a. Ice Mike busted the rhymes about a thermonuclear cyborg being chased by Gregory Hines.
Yo, Eve of Destruction!
Visit The Evilshop @ Amazon!
Got news? Click here to submit it!
It might be a 30-second commercial jingle rather than an actual song, and it isn’t even included in the movie; yet, this previously long lost promo is the epitome of what B-Sides is all about. Not since the Maniac Cop 2 closing credits rap song has there been b-movie hip hop greatness of this caliber.
Charles Jackson a.k.a. C.J. Skyy and Michael Haney a.k.a. Ice Mike busted the rhymes about a thermonuclear cyborg being chased by Gregory Hines.
Yo, Eve of Destruction!
Visit The Evilshop @ Amazon!
Got news? Click here to submit it!
- 11/9/2013
- by Foywonder
- DreadCentral.com
The Panic in Needle Park
Written by Joan Dion and John Gregory Dunne; based on the book by James Mills
Directed by Jerry Schatzberg
USA, 1971
Al Pacino gives a riveting performance as Bobby, an energetic street hustler and heroin addict who forms a bizarre, yet accepting relationship with a homeless woman, Helen, played by Kitty Winn. The Panic in Needle Park is a gut-wrenching expose into the drug culture in New York City. American films of the late sixties, such as Easy Rider, Performance and The Trip, portrayed the edgy glamour and counter-culture boom of the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll revolution, but after the release of The Panic in Needle Park, filmmakers forecast the downward spiral of addiction. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll transgressed into heroin, prostitution and jail. To this day, no other film has topped the realistic portrayal of the drug culture. Shot in a documentary-like fashion,...
Written by Joan Dion and John Gregory Dunne; based on the book by James Mills
Directed by Jerry Schatzberg
USA, 1971
Al Pacino gives a riveting performance as Bobby, an energetic street hustler and heroin addict who forms a bizarre, yet accepting relationship with a homeless woman, Helen, played by Kitty Winn. The Panic in Needle Park is a gut-wrenching expose into the drug culture in New York City. American films of the late sixties, such as Easy Rider, Performance and The Trip, portrayed the edgy glamour and counter-culture boom of the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll revolution, but after the release of The Panic in Needle Park, filmmakers forecast the downward spiral of addiction. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll transgressed into heroin, prostitution and jail. To this day, no other film has topped the realistic portrayal of the drug culture. Shot in a documentary-like fashion,...
- 6/23/2013
- by Yale Freedman
- SoundOnSight
(Billy Wilder, 1945, Eureka!, PG)
From Chaplin's One Am in 1916, to Dudley Moore's Arthur 65 years later, the popular cinema has found drunkenness amusing. Only occasionally has Hollywood tried to wipe the indulgent smiles off the audience's faces, most notably in The Lost Weekend and Days of Wine and Roses. In Double Indemnity (1944) Billy Wilder had cast a much-liked light comedian, Fred MacMurray, as a weak murderer. A year later Wilder put handsome romantic lead Ray Milland into his noir masterpiece The Lost Weekend as Don Birnam, an alcoholic writer hitting rock bottom on a four-day bender in New York and ending up in an alcoholic ward.
Although ultimately less bleak than Charles Jackson's autobiographical novel (it ends on an affirmative note and leaves out the book's hints of troubled homosexuality), the film is uncompromising in its depiction of the lies, self-deception and degradation that alcoholism leads to, and its...
From Chaplin's One Am in 1916, to Dudley Moore's Arthur 65 years later, the popular cinema has found drunkenness amusing. Only occasionally has Hollywood tried to wipe the indulgent smiles off the audience's faces, most notably in The Lost Weekend and Days of Wine and Roses. In Double Indemnity (1944) Billy Wilder had cast a much-liked light comedian, Fred MacMurray, as a weak murderer. A year later Wilder put handsome romantic lead Ray Milland into his noir masterpiece The Lost Weekend as Don Birnam, an alcoholic writer hitting rock bottom on a four-day bender in New York and ending up in an alcoholic ward.
Although ultimately less bleak than Charles Jackson's autobiographical novel (it ends on an affirmative note and leaves out the book's hints of troubled homosexuality), the film is uncompromising in its depiction of the lies, self-deception and degradation that alcoholism leads to, and its...
- 8/11/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Directed and co-written by two-time Academy Award winner Billy Wilder, The Lost Weekend is to be released in the UK as part of Eureka’s Masters Of Cinema Series on Blu-ray (Standard and SteelBook editions) on 25 June 2012.
We have three copies of the Blu-ray to give away to our readers.
Directed by Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot), this gut-wrenching adaptation of Charles Jackson’s The Lost Weekend horrified its studio, was rejected by test audiences, and was lobbied by temperance groups, yet went on to huge success and became the awards sensation of its year.
Ray Milland stars as Don Birnam, a New York author struggling with years of alcoholism and writer’s block. Trying to keep him on the path to rehabilitation are his straight-laced brother Wick (Philip Terry) and devoted long-time girlfriend Helen (Jane Wyman). When Don absconds from a country excursion, he embarks on a four-day binge,...
We have three copies of the Blu-ray to give away to our readers.
Directed by Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot), this gut-wrenching adaptation of Charles Jackson’s The Lost Weekend horrified its studio, was rejected by test audiences, and was lobbied by temperance groups, yet went on to huge success and became the awards sensation of its year.
Ray Milland stars as Don Birnam, a New York author struggling with years of alcoholism and writer’s block. Trying to keep him on the path to rehabilitation are his straight-laced brother Wick (Philip Terry) and devoted long-time girlfriend Helen (Jane Wyman). When Don absconds from a country excursion, he embarks on a four-day binge,...
- 6/22/2012
- by Matt Holmes
- Obsessed with Film
"I want to thank three persons,” said Michel Hazanavicius, accepting the 2012 Best Picture Oscar for “The Artist.” “I want to thank Billy Wilder, I want to thank Billy Wilder and I want to thank Billy Wilder.” He wasn’t the first director to namecheck Wilder in an acceptance speech. In 1994, Fernando Trueba, accepting the Foreign Language Film Oscar for "Belle Epoque" quipped, "I would like to believe in God in order to thank him. But I just believe in Billy Wilder... so, thank you Mr. Wilder." Wilder reportedly called the next day "Fernando? It's God."
So just what exactly was it that inspired these men to expend some of the most valuable seconds of speechifying airtime they'll ever know, to tip their hats to Wilder? And can we bottle it?
Born in a region of Austria/Hungary that is now part of Poland, Wilder's story feels like an archetype of...
So just what exactly was it that inspired these men to expend some of the most valuable seconds of speechifying airtime they'll ever know, to tip their hats to Wilder? And can we bottle it?
Born in a region of Austria/Hungary that is now part of Poland, Wilder's story feels like an archetype of...
- 3/27/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
The angel dust of the ‘80s is back in a new form called "wet," and teens are going crazy for it-literally. Jeff Deeney on how a drug that makes users psychotic is staging a comeback.
On the corners near Westmoreland and Rorer in North Philly's war-torn Badlands, long the nexus of the city's drug trade, you'll hear rag-tag crews of young, gun-strapped Latin hustlers calling out "wet, wet, wet."
Related story on The Daily Beast: Drug Dealers to the Stars
They're advertising to a specific kind of customer, one who's not here to cop heroin or coke (though those are available in abundance if they want them), a customer who's looking, instead, to get "wetted up." These are customers who want a high that includes hallucinations and, not infrequently, a psychotic episode. By morning light, some of them will be strapped to gurneys in inpatient psych units, wards of the...
On the corners near Westmoreland and Rorer in North Philly's war-torn Badlands, long the nexus of the city's drug trade, you'll hear rag-tag crews of young, gun-strapped Latin hustlers calling out "wet, wet, wet."
Related story on The Daily Beast: Drug Dealers to the Stars
They're advertising to a specific kind of customer, one who's not here to cop heroin or coke (though those are available in abundance if they want them), a customer who's looking, instead, to get "wetted up." These are customers who want a high that includes hallucinations and, not infrequently, a psychotic episode. By morning light, some of them will be strapped to gurneys in inpatient psych units, wards of the...
- 4/23/2011
- by Jeff Deeney
- The Daily Beast
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