The Lost Weekend is another very well made movie from Billy Wilder and features the Academy Award winning performance from star Ray Milland (and took home the Oscar for picture, director and writing).
The Lost Weekend
(1945)
Genre(s): Drama
Kino Lorber | NR – 101 min. – $29.95| November 24, 2020
Date Published: 12/06/2020 | Author: The Movieman
|
|
|||||||||||
Kino Lorber provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 4¼/5 |
|
Plot Synopsis: Writer Don Birnam (RAY MILLAND) is on the wagon. Sober for only a few days, Don is supposed to be spending the weekend with his brother, Wick (PHILLIP TERRY), but, eager for a drink, Don convinces his girlfriend (JANE WYMAN) to take Wick to a show. Don, meanwhile, heads to his local bar and misses the train out of town. After recounting to the bartender (HOWARD DA SILVA) how he developed a drinking problem, Don goes on a weekend-long bender that just might prove to be his last.
Quick Hit Review: It’s interesting to read how The Lost Weekend stunned audiences back in the day, though I suppose they never saw anything resembling a drama about alcoholism before (can’t imagine how they would react to Leaving Las Vegas…), but today this is not only tame, but sometimes comes across over-the-top, even clichéd. Having said that, it’s still a decent portrayal (at least from my understanding as someone who doesn’t drink) of a broken man, pushing away those who care about him and doing anything to get another drink. Also deserving praise is Jane Wyman as Don Birnam’s faithful girlfriend, someone unwilling to give up on him even when his own flesh and blood does. I think her naitivity about Don’s alcoholism is equally realistic, in fact in the end she talks about him quitting cold which is not just naïve but pretty dangerous from what I’ve read, not sure if this was known back in the 30s and 40s, however. In any case, really liked Wyman in her few scenes.
The Lost Weekend was directed by venerable filmmaker Billy Wilder, the man behind the wonderful thriller Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like it Hot and the romance-drama, The Apartment which I had watched earlier this year. Wilder took him the Academy Award for directing this as well as The Apartment (and was nominated five other times in the category). The Lost Weekend isn’t Wilder’s best work as a whole, but still pretty dang good in any case and worth checking out as it seems to go under the radar compared to his other works. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2¾/5 |
|
Features include an Audio Commentary with Film Historian Joseph McBride, the Radio Adaptation (27:36) with Milland and Wyman reprising their roles, Trailers from Hell (2:31) with Mark Pellington and the Theatrical Trailer (2:08). |
VIDEO – 4½/5 |
| The Lost Weekend arrives on Blu-ray for the first time in North America through Kino Lorber and has received a black & white 1080p high-definition transfer that was taken from a new 4K master. The film looks fabulous in HD, detail is fairly sharp and the original film grain and noise has been retained quite nicely. There were a few minor specs and scratches but nothing I’d consider a major flaw nor very distracting while watching the film (I only noticed with closer inspection afterward). |
AUDIO – 4¼/5 |
| The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track and is impressive. Course, the vast majority of this is strictly dialogue driven with some musical elements thrown in. There is some minor hissing that I did detect but outside of that, it is an impressive enough of a lossless track. |
OVERALL – 4/5 |
|
The Lost Weekend is another very well made movie from Billy Wilder and features the Academy Award winning performance from star Ray Milland (and took home the Oscar for picture, director and writing). As someone who hasn’t drank nor known anyone afflicted, I’ll assume Milland’s portrayal is pretty close and as such, this is worth checking out on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.