Come Fill the Cup

This is a far too seldom televised Cagney picture, made in his more mature years. Cagney is top-notch as an alcoholic reporter finally scared enough by the threat of death ("Angel feathers," his reformed alcoholic savior James Gleason tells him) to go on the wagon. He's enlisted by his publisher boss Raymond Massey to mentor--basically slap some sense into-- Massey's incipient alcoholic nephew, Gig Young. The plot is rather work-a-day, and Cagney is all too dynamic for a recovering alcoholic; he never convinces us that being dry is agony. Moreover, it shows none of the stark horror of alcoholism better dramatized in The Lost Weekend or Days of Wine and Roses. Yet the script is taut and it's always a treat to watch Cagney at work. And James Gleason, one of the most personable of character actors, was never better. Watch his expectant face as he tries his daily attempt at a pseudo Bloody Mary on his roommate, Cagney. "Still tomato juice," they say in unison.