synopsis:

At an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, advertising executive Joe, in flashback, tells the story of his deteriorating life. Joe is a former social drinker who turns alcoholic due to pressures at work. He meets Kirsten at a party, and after a short time they marry. After a few more months, Kirsten is able to put away as much liquor as her husband. As the years pass, Joe loses one job after another and his wife neglects their child until he begins to realize that both of them are alcoholics. They move into her father's nursery to dry out, but following a couple of weeks of sobriety, they go on a binge. Joe nearly destroys a greenhouse in a fanatical search for a bottle and ends up in hospital ward. Former alcoholic Jim Hungerford tries to persuade Joe to join an organization ro help deal with his problem, but Kirsten coaxes him back to the bottle.famous is joe's monologue during the alcoholics anonymous meeting, when He tells about the way he forced kirsten to take a good, harsh look in the mirror: "I walked by the Union Square Bar. I was going to go in. Then I saw myself - my reflection in the window - and I thought, 'I wonder who that bum is.' And then I saw it was me. Now look at me. I'm a bum. Look at me. Look at you. You're a bum. Look at you. And look at us. Look at us. C'mon, look at us. See? A couple of bums."

about this movie:

this movie is an adaptation of J.P. Miller's PLAYHOUSE 90 story, starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. it is a classic portrait of a couple consumed by addiction. Refreshingly free of the moralistic clichés of this genre, its depiction of the glamor enjoyed by drinking in previous decades throws light on the ease with which many were able to slide into oblivion.

The phrase "days of wine and roses" is originally from the poem 'Vitae Summa Brevis' by the English writer Ernest Dowson (1867-1900):

"They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes,
Within a dream."