Days of Wine and Roses

"Days of Wine and Roses" is the title of:

• A 1962 film directed by Blake Edwards and starring Jack Lemmon
• A popular song composed for the film by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer
• The Days of Wine and Roses, an album by Dream Syndicate

Plot

The film is based on a 1958 television play by J P Miller. The main character, played by Jack Lemmon, is Joe Clay (a name signifying his 'ordinariness', 'a regular Joe', 'a man of clay'). Joe is a San Francisco 'public relations' consultant, a job which mostly requires him to procure girls (probably call girls although this is not clearly stated) for clients' parties. It also requires him to drink socially with his clients. Joe is first seen in a bar (when he takes a drink he repeats the phrase "Magic time!" appreciatively) trying to get a group of girls to attend a party on a yacht. On the night of the party one of the girls is late and Joe mistakes his client's secretary, Kirsten Arnesen (Lee Remick) for her. She is not amused and refuses Joe's hospitality, telling him she does not drink.

In a further effort to make amends Joe visits Kirsten at her office and presents her with a box of peanut brittle. She is still aloof, saying she doesn't like peanut brittle although she does have "a thing about chocolate" (an indication of her addictive personality). Finally Joe prevails on her to let him take her to dinner. At the restaurant he orders a drink for himself then gives a secret order to the barman. Kirsten is presented with a Brandy Alexander. Because it tastes of chocolate Kirsten is willing to drink it. At the end of the evening Kirsten is tipsy and confesses the drink made her "feel good".

The couple's relationship develops, with Joe visiting Kirsten's apartment for dinner, bringing with him the ingredients for her Brandy Alexanders while he has "good old Scotch and soda". Eventually they marry without telling Kirsten's father (Joe's family are in show business and he has had very little contact with them throughout his life). When they visit Ellis Arnesen (a plain hard-working man who owns a plant nursery - Charles Bickford) he is very reserved and quietly scornful of Joe's profession. He closes the door on the couple, effectively turning them away. Kirsten knows that behind his reserve the old man was very angry, she asks Joe if they can go somewhere quiet "and have a drink".

We next see Joe and Kirsten living in a smart apartment. They have a baby daughter, Debbie. Joe is busy at work with a heavy-drinking client. He is resentful that when he returns home Kirsten is "stone-cold sober" and will not drink because it will affect her milk. After a particularly stormy argument, Kirsten - to show her love and loyalty to her husband - quietly takes a glass and pours herself a drink.

More time passes. Joe arrives late at his office, looking dishevelled. His manager looks in and Joe explains it was Debbie's first birthday the night before and he and Kirsten "celebrated... really hung one on". The manager tells Joe that his client has been fired by his firm ("frankly, for drinking too much") and Joe is being given a new job in Houston. Joe reacts badly, seing the job as a demotion which will keep him away from his family. It is obvious to the viewer that the manager is concerned about Joe's drinking behaviour, but Joe fails to see this.

Back at home that evening Joe and Kirsten are drinking large quantities of whiskey. They finish a bottle and open another. Joe curses the people he works with. Kirsten, who appears to be drunker than Joe, says it is the result of "office politics". Joe should not be concerned because "you do your job fine".

At first all goes well for Joe in Houston and he builds a good relationship with his clients. In San Francisco, however, Kirsten is drinking during the day and putting Debbie to bed very early so she can drink freely in the evening. Finally she drinks too much, passes out and sets the apartment on fire with a discarded cigarette. Joe gets the news by telephone from Arnesen while dining with his clients. His immediate reaction is to call for another drink and it is obvious his clients have lost patience with this behaviour. Joe returns to San Francisco. As their burnt belongings are removed Kirsten tells him she wouldn't have been drinking if Joe had been there. Joe tells her he won't be going away anymore - he has been fired.

Several years pass. We next see Joe in the street, shabbily dressed and with a five o'clock shadow. He sees his reflection (ironically in the window of a bar) and a look of concern crosses his face. He rushes home (now a small, poorly furnished room). Kirsten (also poorly dressed, with unkempt hair) is drinking beer from a can and is already drunk. She tells Joe to get a beer but he knocks her drink from her hand. Angrily he tells her they have turned into "a couple of bums" and the reason they live so squalidly and he has lost five jobs in four years isn't the result of professional jealousy or office politics but "booze". Kirsten protests that they just have "a coupla drinks" but Joe tells her "We don't just have a couple of drinks - we get drunk, and we stay drunk most of the time." Kirsten says vaguely that they just won't drink so much in future. Joe says this is not enough, they have to stop completely and immediately. He proposes that they go to live and work at her father's nursery, get sober, then he can rebuild his career. Kirsten agrees, again out of loyalty to Joe.

At the nursery Joe works hard (although he is unused to physical work) and the couple are happy. Arnesen seems pleased and has come to accept Joe. After a month, however, Joe decides he and Kirsten deserve a reward for staying sober. He smuggles two pint bottles of whiskey to their bedroom, hiding another in a flower pot in the greenhouse. He tells Kirsten they "deserve a drop" and the supply will last a long while. At first reluctant, Kirsten gets two glasses. Later that night both bottles are empty. Both Joe and Kirsten are very drunk but Joe wants to get the hidden bottle from the greenhouse. To avoid disturbing Arnesen he climbs out of their window. In the greenhouse he is too fuddled to remember where he hid the extra bottle. In one of the film's most powerful scenes (which takes place in a raging thunderstorm), Joe goes berserk, tearing the place to pieces until he finds the whiskey. Kirsten meanwhile has stumbled into her Arnesen's bedroom, waking him with a plea for a goodnight kiss (an action with disturbing suggestions of an incestuous attraction to her father). Angrily he puts her under a cold shower to sober her up.

Kirsten's screams under the shower merge with the screams of Joe who is now in a psychiatric hospital restrained by a straitjacket suffering from delerium tremens. When he emerges from this state he is visited by Jim Hungerford (Jack Klugman) who offers to help him achieve sobriety through Alcoholics Anonymous. Joe agrees to attend a meeting but Kirsten refuses. She sees being an alcoholic as degrading and feels she only needs self-discipline to reduce her alcohol consumption.

Joe begins to put his life back together, attending AA meetings and regaining his health. Kirsten, meanwhile, continues to drink heavily. To keep himself sober Joe has to send her away to live with her father. When he goes to visit he finds she has run away several times "always with some bum" who will buy her drinks. Joe arranges to repay Arnesen for the damage he caused in the greenhouse.

Kirsten is finally found living in a cheap motel. Borrowing Jim's car Joe goes to collect her, with a final warning from Jim that Kirsten will resent him being sober. Joe finds Kirsten passed out on the bed in her cabin, surrounded by bottles of cheap gin. When she wakes she automatically reaches for a drink from the bottle by her bed. She has been drunk for three days and refuses Joe's offer to come home (to all his "preachy" sober friends). Drinking steadily from the bottle Kirsten mocks Joe for not being a real man because he is afraid to take a drink. Finally she says if he really loved her he would join her for a drink (reversing their positions from the early days of their marriage). Joe fetches a glass, sits on the edge of the bed and takes a drink. Kirsten smiles and drapes herself across his shoulders. "Want some o' mine, honey?" she asks as she clumsily pours him another large drink.

Later, his craving reawakened, Joe stumbles drunk from the motel in search of more alcohol. He finds a liquor store but it has just closed. Desperately he forces the door open and grabs a bottle but stumbles and falls as he runs away. The storekeeper sadistically pours the bottle over Joe as he lays on the ground.

Following another spell in the psychiatric hospital Joe is sober again, working steadily and living with Debbie in a modest apartment. Late one night Kirsten comes to the apartment. She is sober but poorly dressed in a shapeless coat, and generally looking down-at-heel. Joe makes one last plea with her to stop drinking "you'd be amazed how much fun you can have sober". She asks to come home but Joe says there is no room for the two of them plus drink in their relationship. She says she cannot live without the soothing effect of alcohol to take the harsh edges off the real world. Kirsten leaves. Joe watches from the window as she walks down the street to a place where a flashing neon sign reads "Bar". Debbie wakes and says she thought she heard her mother's voice. Joe tells her she was dreaming. Debbie asks when her mother will come back home. Joe says she is ill and will come back if she gets well again. The film ends on a note of doubt that Kirsten will ever be able to stop drinking and rejoin her family.

Critical views

An "intense dramatic portrayal of an alcoholic, co-dependent couple." - Tim Dirks

"Hollywood doesn't make 'em like this any more" - Cole Smithey

"there's true gut wrenching honesty at work in the screenplay" - DVD Verdict

"one of the most illuminating films on the horrors of alcoholism" - Silver Screen Reviews

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

Winner: Best Song. Nominated: Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Art Direction, Costume Design

Bafta

Nominated: Best Film, Jack lemmon, Lee Remick

Golden Globe Award

Nominated: Best Motion Picture (Drama), Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Blake Edwards

Laurel Awards

Winner: Top Drama, Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick. Third Place: Charles Bickford. Nominated: Top Song.

San Sebastian International Film Festival

Winner: Blake Edwards, Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick

External Links

Internet Movie Database page [1]

Filmsite.org page [2]

Yahoo page [3]

allmove.com page [4]