Ray Milland's brilliance

The two best portrayals of an alcoholic I have ever seen were Milland's turn in Weekend and Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Cage used alcohol in Vegas as a completely self-destructive tool for suicide. There's a quote he has in there about how drinking is just an excuse to kill himself, or maybe killing himself is just an excuse to drink. That portrayal is unique and different, but if you want to see just a man who is an alcoholic, his thought process, and his dependency on the bottle, Ray Milland closed the book on that subject way back in 1945. To me, his brilliance is in the subtleties of his performance. When Nat pulls the cloth away and the shot is still on the fabric, Milland gets a subtle look in his eye, and grabs for it. That right there speaks volumes. When there is a bottle or a glass in the room, he does everything he possibly can to have it. You almost feel yourself sweating when he is trying to hock his typewriter for just one more drink. That whole sequence was amazing to me. Here he is, a writer, trying to sell his typewriter, his only means of work or expression, for a drink that will soon be gone and then he'll be right back where he started. Only this time, he won't even be able to write anymore.