Thursday - An alcoholic New York writer, Don Birnam, is packing for a weekend vacation with his brother Wick, who is trying to discourage his drinking. When Don’s girlfriend Helen comes to see them off, she mentions in passing that she has two tickets for a concert, to which Don urges Wick to accompany her. Don heads for Nat’s Bar, deliberately missing his train, and then sneaks back into the flat to drink some cheap whisky he has bought, avoiding Helen who is worried about him being left alone.

Friday - Back at the bar, the owner (Nat) criticises Don for treating Helen so badly, and Don recalls how he first met her. It was due to a mix-up of cloakroom tickets at the opera-house, where he had to wait for the person who had been given his coat-check in error. This was Helen, with whom he strikes up a romance. When he is due to meet her parents for lunch at a hotel, he loses his nerve and phones a message to her, crying off. Presently he confesses to her that he is two people ‘Don the writer’, who can only write while drunk, and ‘Don the drunk’ who always has to be bailed-out by his brother. Still, Helen devotes herself to helping him in his plight. Back in the present day, Don has moved on to another bar, where is caught stealing the money to pay his bill, and thrown out. In the flat, he finds a bottle he had stashed the previous night, and drinks himself into a stupor.

Saturday - Don is broke and all the pawnshops are closed for a public holiday. At Nat’s Bar, he is refused service. In desperation, he visits a girl who had given up on him because he kept letting her down, but now agrees to give him a few dollars out of pity. Leaving her flat, he falls down the stairs and is knocked unconscious.

Sunday - Don wakes up in an alcoholics’ ward, where a cynical member of staff mocks him and other guests at ‘Hangover Plaza’, but offers to help cure his delirium. Don refuses help, and succeeds in escaping from the ward while the staff are occupied with a violent patient.

Monday - Still broke, Don steals a bottle of whisky from a store, and spends the day drinking and hallucinating. Helen returns, alerted by a call from Don's landlady who can hear his screams. Finding him in a delirious state, she vows to look after him and spends the night on his couch.

Tuesday - Don slips out and pawns Helen’s coat - the thing which had first brought them together - in order to buy a gun. He tells her their relationship is over, and she glimpses the gun which he has hidden in the bathroom. As they struggle for mastery of the weapon, she reminds Don of her love for him, and her concern that he should stop drinking. She is able to convince him that ‘Don the writer’ and ‘Don the drunk’ are the same person. He finally commits to writing his novel The Bottle, dedicated to her, which will recount the events of the weekend. He drops a cigarette into a glass of whiskey to make it undrinkable, as proof that he is cured.
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Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures