The Lost Weekend

Plot[edit]

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 secure 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.


After finding ten dollars Wick left for the cleaning lady, Don heads for Nat's Bar, calling in at a liquor store on the way to purchase two bottles of rye. He intends to be back home in time to meet Wick and catch their train but, due to his drinking, he loses track of time. Arriving home, he sees Wick and Helen on the street and, concealing himself, learns that Wick has given up on the idea of helping his brother and is leaving. He admonishes Helen for deciding to stay and wait for Don. In due course, Don manages to sneak back into the apartment and hide a bottle while drinking the other one.


On Friday, back at Nat's Bar, Nat informs Don that Helen had the previous night been in looking for him and criticizes Don for treating her so badly. Don says he intends to write a novel about his battle with alcoholism, called The Bottle. He recalls how he first met Helen at the opera house. The cloakroom had mixed up their coats. Subsequently, the two struck up a romance and he remained sober during this time. While going to meet her parents, he overhears them talking about his unemployment and how they are not certain if he is good enough for their daughter. He loses his nerve and sneaks off, after phoning Helen from a booth and making a phony excuse, ostensibly intending to actually meet them later. However, he returns home and gets drunk. She goes to his apartment, where Wick tries to cover for him, but Don confesses that he is two people: "Don the writer", whose fear of failure causes him to drink, and "Don the drunk", who always has to be bailed out by Wick. Helen devotes herself to helping him.


After telling Nat the story behind his proposed novel, Don heads back home to begin writing it. However, his alcohol cravings get the better of him and he begins a desperate search for that second bottle from the previous night. He cannot remember where he hid it. He goes to a nightclub and, when he realizes he cannot pay the bill, he steals money from a woman's purse. He is caught, thrown out and told never to return. Once home, he finds the hidden bottle and drinks himself into a stupor.


On Saturday, Don is broke and feeling sick. He decides to pawn his typewriter so he can buy more alcohol, although he dreads the walk to the shop because he feels so ill. He discovers the pawnshops are closed for Yom Kippur. Desperate for money, he visits Gloria, a prostitute who has a crush on him. She gives him some money, but he falls down her stairs and is knocked unconscious.


On Sunday, Don wakes up in an alcoholics' ward where nurse Bim Nolan mocks him and other guests at "Hangover Plaza". Bim offers to help offset his sure-to-come delirium tremens, but Don rejects the assistance and escapes while the staff are occupied with a raving, violent patient.


On Monday, Don steals a bottle of whisky from a store after threatening the owner, and spends the day drinking. Suffering from delirium tremens, he hallucinates a nightmarish scene in which a bat flies in his window and kills a mouse, spilling its blood. His screams alert a neighbour, who contacts Helen, who immediately goes over. Finding Don collapsed and in a delirious state, she assists him to clean up and get to bed; she stays overnight on his couch.


On Tuesday morning, Don slips out and pawns Helen's coat, the one that had brought them together. She trails him to the pawn shop and learns from the pawnbroker that Don traded the coat for his gun, for which he has bullets at home. She races back to Don's apartment and interrupts him just as he is about to shoot himself. She pleads with him, even going so far as to beg him to drink the last portion of whisky left in the bottle he had stolen and which she had concealed. She declares she would rather he be alive as an alcoholic. He refuses and, while they are arguing, Nat arrives to return Don's typewriter. After Nat leaves, Helen finally convinces him that "Don the writer" and "Don the drunk" are the same person. He commits to writing his novel The Bottle, dedicated to her, which will recount the events of the weekend. As evidence of his resolve, he drops a cigarette into the glass of whisky to make it undrinkable.