Directed by Billy Wilder • 1945 • United States
Starring Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry

Billy Wilder’s searing portrait of alcoholic self-destruction broke new ground in its frank, hard-hitting treatment of addiction. Ray Milland delivers a fearless, Academy Award–winning performance as Don Birnam, a failed New York City writer whose inability to control his drinking comes to a head over the course of a devastating multiday bender. In addition to Milland’s win, this by turns starkly realistic and expressionistically heightened drama received Oscars for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay.