“Don’t wipe it away Nat. Let me have my vicious little circle,” says Don Birnam to a bartender named Nat, referring to the ring a glass leaves on a bar. Don (Ray Milland) plays an unsuccessful writer and tormented alcoholic in Billy Wilder’s 1946 bleak drama “The Lost Weekend.”

The film begins with Don and his brother Wick (Phillip Terry) packing for a long weekend in the country, to help Don break his addiction to alcohol (he has been sober for 10 days, or so he says). Somehow, Don convinces Wick to take his girlfriend Helen St. James (Jane Wyman) to a concert.

Wick has removed all the alcohol from the apartment the two share, as well as informed all the area liquor stores and bars not to give Don a tab. Don finds money that Wick left for the housekeeper.

Armed with 10 dollars, he buys two bottles of the cheapest rye and drinks the rest away at Nat’s Bar. Frustrated by his brother’s actions, Wick departs for the country without him, leaving Don to a weekend of drunkenness and desperation, stopping at nothing to get his fix.

Despite the fact that it was Best Picture of 1946, “The Lost Weekend” is one of Wilder’s lesser known works. Instead, Wilder is better known for dramas like “Sunset Boulevard” and subversive comedies such as “The Apartment.” This film, however, is one of his finest. Wilder approaches the film as a personal narrative, and thus gets us inside the head of a raging alcoholic. We travel along with Don down a dark, winding spiral into madness. Wilder employs point-of-view shots, oftentimes during Don’s spells, giving us the privilege of his sight. The film takes on an even more direct narrative role as Don tells Nat the story of his unwritten semi-autobiographical novel.

At this point, we are taken back to the afternoon when Helen and Don met. We learn more and more about Don, as Milland is completely vulnerable in his performance. Even after Helen finds out about Don, she stays by him, convinced that she can “fix” him.

Milland gives a stellar performance as Don, fully immersing himself in Don’s disease. Don is clearly distressed, but there is much more to him. He is also quite quick and clever, the master of deceit and facades. But his craftiness takes a toll on him, as he must spend time and energy keeping his secrets from Helen and Wick and his desperation has turned into shifty eyes that avoid contact for fear of shame and public ridicule.

Milland is really playing two Dons throughout “The Lost Weekend,” one manic, tearing apart his brother’s apartment searching for his missing bottle of liquor, the other pathetic, wallowing in his sorrows.

There is a fantastic sequence in the film when Don awakens after passing out in his apartment to the squeaking of a mouse. He opens his eyes and sees a mouse trapped in the wall.

At first he laughs at the sight, until a bat comes in and eats the mouse, sending blood dripping down the wall. This could be considered the moment of climax in the film, a point where Don’s drinking leaves him dangling on the edge of madness. In this scene, Wilder makes a statement about all intoxicants: They all will, at some point, invade your mind and if left to fester, drive you mad.

Although contemporary audiences might be turned off by this film’s age, it is extremely relevant to today’s world of addictions. And while it may not be as glamorous as something like “Blow,” “The Lost Weekend” does something that a lot modern flicks don’t—it relies on the strengths and merits of a good story and well-developed character.

You can rent “The Lost Weekend” on Netflix, or find it at online stores like Amazon. They also show it occasionally on Turner Classic Movies. I’m not sure if you will be able to find it at your neighborhood Blockbuster, but it is definitely worth looking for.

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