The Lost Weekend (1945) Billy Wilder (Dir.), Ray Milland, Jane Wyman

On Thursday, alcoholic New York writer Don Birnam is packing for a weekend vacation with his brother Wick. In spite of the fact that they are leaving mid-afternoon, when Don’s girlfriend Helen drops by with gifts for him to enjoy over the weekend and reveals she has two tickets for a concert that afternoon, Don suggests that Wick attend with her; the brothers can then catch a later train. His motive is self-serving: he has a bottle hanging by a rope outside the window and wants to retrieve it and secrete it in his suitcase. Wick eventually discovers the bottle. Don claims to have forgotten it was there; Wick pours it down the drain. Now, knowing that all the liquor Don had hidden in the apartment has been disposed of, and believing he has no money for more, Helen and Wick go to the concert.