DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (74)

Directed by: Blake Edwards (1962)

Starring: Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Charles Bickford, Jack Klugman

The Pitch: A bright PR man drinks to take his mind off the job ; his teetotaler wife starts drinking to keep him company, and they both sink into alcoholism.

Theo Sez: An actors' piece, and they grab it with both hands : Lemmon does well in the Oscar-bait scenes - raving in the dipso ward, etc. - but the real miracle is the way he never loses sight of his convivial C. C. Baxter persona from THE APARTMENT, channelling that eager-to-please energy in unexpected (but internally consistent) ways, just as Remick's fresh-faced 'nice girl' has her dark edges right from the start ("I dreamt I was murdered," she says apropos of nothing much, as they gaze up at the stars on their first date) yet remains a firm, solid person right to the end (he's the one who 'succumbs', admitting his alcoholism and looking for help). Emotional coherence is part of what transforms the stuff of TV movies into uncommonly powerful drama, though the script's light touch also helps - vaulting across time, never getting bogged down, not least in the understated Alcoholics Anonymous sequence (things were so much more dignified in the 60s, before we learned to let it all hang out). Some awkwardly moralistic and / or melodramatic bits, especially in the second half - the first is relaxed and delightful - but it really holds up incredibly well : it never wallows, the lines are snappy, and Edwards' touch is incisive and modern (this may be the earliest example of that gritty, very 70s piece of staging that plays emotionally bleak scenes off cartoons chirping away on TV in the background). Didactic premise, but a mightily impressive movie : cogent, uncompromising, superbly played and - pun intended - remarkably sober ; Ms. Remick's beauty is pure and serene, and would make the film a tragedy all by itself.