The Moviegoer

"Come Fill the Cup" is a puckish title for a puckish film. Originally taken from a novel by Harlan Ware, the movie develops into a show dedicated to the proposition that a drunk's world is a delightful place. It is a life that shifts from gutter to mansion in a matter of seconds, and it involves all sorts of fascinating people. And, it has a cops-and-robbers ending, too.

James Cagney, an ex-reporter philosophizing over a half-drained glass of bourbon, sets the tone:

"When you're feeling low, it picks you up;

when you're excited, it calms you down.

When you're sick, it makes you healthy,

and when you're healthy--well, it can't hurt you."

The fact that it can hurt you took relatively little prominance in "Come Fill the Cup." Fortunately, there are not enough preachments to encumber the film's lightness.

"Come Fill the Cup" is divided into three parts. The first introduces the alcoholic reporter who strides into the Sun Herald and begins to write up a five-day-old story ("...what happened to those five days?"), and the girl friend, Phyllis Thaxter, who leaves Cagney for the publisher's nephew.

The second part is devoted to a double sobering up process--both Cagney and the nephew. The third part is the story of crusading City Editor Cagney vs. the crooks out to murder the publisher's nephew.

As opposed to some of his earlier roles, Cagney is strong but not silent. His dialogue is strictly the Sam Spade variety--fast, entertaining, and with a stout-hearted quip for every occasion. Cagney's old friend--also a reformed alcoholic--is consistently very funny as he fusses over his tomato juice, attempting to hide its taste.

It's just as well that Producer Henry Blanke did not try to produce another "Lost Weekend," for if he had, "Come Fill the Cup" could only have been a second-rate imitation. Instead, beyond a bow or two to the problem of alcoholism, he offers a unique combination of mirth and thrills that can upset no one.