Quadruple Bill Mini Musings: Booze, Bots, Aliens, and Body-swapping...

The Lost Weekend:
What's it about?
Billy Wilder's Oscar-snatching drama about a writer who is hopelessly addicted to alcohol, and finds himself alone with just his inner-turmoil and his bottle.
Who would I recognise in it?
It depends how well you know your 1940s cinema, but Ray Milland and Jane Wyman.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
While not as deliciously dark as Wilder's previous film Double Indemnity, nor as blackly comic as his iconic Sunset Boulevard, Wilder brings his trademark touch of class and incisive directorial skill to one writer's alcoholism. Naturally, the subject is dealt with to 1940s standards (although I'd wager it took away a few breaths upon its initial release), you might draw some parallels with the hopeless alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas (a relatively more modern telling of a similar depressive tale of the battle with the bottle). It might split the audience - one man's seemingly cosy ending, is another man's rather more ambiguous fade out that uncomfortably comes full circle. Great, with a few softened edges.

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