Come Fill the Cup (1951) User Reviews

Remarkable Anti-Drink Melodrama.

[jpdoherty · 7/10 · 14 February 2012]

"THE WAGON IS NEVER AN EASY RIDE".

In the wake of Paramount's enduring classic "Lost Weekend" (1945) comes this equally absorbing tale of alcohol addiction from Warner Bros. entitled COME FILL THE CUP. It is one of the best pictures of its kind thanks in no small measure to the presence of James Cagney who delivers a powerful performance first as a down and out alcoholic on the skids and then later as a reformed victim trying to sway others away from the demon drink. Produced in 1951 for the studio by Henry Blanke it was nicely written for the screen by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and was based on the novel by Harlan Ware. Beautifully photographed in crisp Black & White by Robert Burks it was directed with fine care and attention to detail by Gordan Douglas.

Cagney plays Lew Marsh a reporter with The Sun Herald. But Lew has a problem. He drinks too much and his career is in tatters. Because of drink he can't hold down his job and is fired when he is five days late with a story. He becomes a hopeless vagrant. A dishevelled drunken bum staggering along the streets of the city waiting for the bars to open. Collapsing on the roadway he is taken to a hospital's alcoholic ward. On his release ("I hope I never see you again Marsh" the doctor tells him) he becomes acquainted with an ex alcoholic Charlie Dolan (James Gleason) who takes him in and rehabilitates him. Without ever drinking again he manages to secure his job back on the newspaper and after some years he is promoted to chief story editor. But now his boss (Raymond Massey) sends for him and asks for his help to stop his nephew (Gig Young) drinking. Reluctantly Lew takes on the job but faces a mammoth task.

The acting is superb from the entire cast. Cagney in particular is simply brilliant and here gives one of his very best performances. The film's early scenes of him drunkenly making his way along the city streets are quite riveting and harrowing in the extreme. Excellent also is James Gleason and the always polished Raymond Massey but extraordinary is the performance from the ill-fated Gig Young here revealing a remarkable talent. The sequence where he goes "cold turkey" and madly rummages through his apartment desperately searching for an elusive bottle of booze is a stunningly profound and concentrated piece of acting. Gig Young quite rightly was nominated for an Acadamy Award for his efforts in the picture. Also of note is the music score which features an attractive piano concerto written by Warner's music supervisor Ray Heindorf and the eerie background score which was composed by the uncredited Max Steiner.

COME FILL THE CUP is a great movie that hasn't dated at all since it was made and is just as vital, pertinent and appropriate today as it was in 1951 or, sadly perhaps, even more so.

Massey: "Lew, it took me 50 years to reach the age of 21." Cagney: "Shake hands with a kid of 19."

[brujay-1 · 8/10 · 18 December 2006]

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.

This is one of Cagney's best films

[byoolives · 8/10 · 6 August 2005]

I am not surprised to find only two previous comments about this very good film. Sadly,I have not seen it it many years, as it seems to have disappeared. My most vivid memory is about two particular scenes. The first is between Cagney and his boss (Raymond Massey). When Massey virtually orders Cagney to sober is young nephew up, Cagney replies "can't be done" . When the boss inquires why ? he is told that the drunk must first hear the sound of "angel feathers" . The feathers he relates, is the fear of death. The other scene is the one in which Cagney meets the young nephew who's name is Boyd (played by Gig Young). While completely drunk and laying down on a bed (couch ?) in Cagney's apartment, the two men engage in some banter, whereby Cagney keeps referring to his guest as Boydeee. The nephew having enough of Cagney's mispronunciation, informs him that if he calls him Boydee one more time, he will knock his block off! Cagney then informs him, that he is drunk and that he will knock nobody's block off. This last line is delivered with a smile and style that only the great Cagney was capable of. Upon hearing Cagney's reply, the nephew agrees with a smile of his own and then doses off to sleep. While watching the oncoming sleep, Cagney's expression changes from a smile to a face of concern and something else. The something else may be anger,disgust and or fear. But whatever it is, it in itself sets the tone for the rest of the film. And that look which once again, only Cagney could deliver, tells the audience that someone is in for a great deal of trouble, and part of the trouble is that Cagney doesn't know who is in for the worst of it.

An unforgettable film!

[MVazquezVentura · 29 January 2007]

I saw this film for the first - and, up to now, last - time just after its release in early 1952 (original English version). "Come fill the cup" is one of those films that seem to have unjustly disappeared. It has never been released in this country, Spain, nor seen in television either here, in Belgium - where I lived 1973-1993 - or several other European countries linked to Brussels TV, U.K. not excluded. After all these years, I remember that all the actors are terrific, Cagney outstanding. Young - not surprisingly - was convincing, and the music score - an unfinished piano concert - haunting. From other comments, I assume that a DVD of this noir classic would be most welcome by Cagney fans of all ages.

"Heaven takes care of drunks and children."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 31 August 2008]

"Come Fill The Cup" might actually be the first film to realistically describe alcoholism as a disease, and the surprise here is how the story tackles the idea that no one can help an alcoholic get sober except the alcoholic himself. For Charley Dolan (James Gleason), the road to sobriety began when he heard the sound of 'angel feathers'. Lew Marsh (James Cagney) described it like more of a whirring sound, when he took a peek into the void and realized that he was afraid to die. It's pretty unusual to get all of this kind of psychological insight in a 1950's Warner Brothers flick; most of the time they were simply portraying the ills of society while allowing the viewer to make up their own mind about things. But here, the story makes it fairly clear that there's really no cure for alcoholism, and that most drunks have to hit rock bottom fairly hard before climbing back up.

In Cagney's case, his character probably made it look a bit too easy, going cold turkey after five lost days in a drunk tank. A fired newspaperman, he claws his way back to respectability with the help of friend Charley, returning as a reporter at the Sun-Herald. Eventually, he's asked by his editor Julian Cuscaden (Larry Keating) to get involved with the publisher's nephew, a would be composer (Gig Young) who's having his own troubles with the bottle. Complicating things is the presence of Paula Copeland (Phyllis Thaxter), Lew's ex-girlfriend, now married to Boyd Copeland (Young). Perhaps as a nod to Cagney's success in the gangster film genre, the story introduces a criminal element as a result of Boyd's extra-marital involvement with the girl of big time hood Lennie Garr (Sheldon Leonard). I think the story could have been effective without the mobster angle, as it kind of drew your attention away from the main plot, but I guess it served it's purpose. A critical scene near the finale had the ex-drunks facing down the thugs, giving the good guys a chance to redeem themselves on a number of different levels.

There was a fairly clever scene, I thought, about midway through when it became apparent that Boyd Copeland was on the way to staying sober. His only friend was a dog he called 'nameless', but through no effort on the dog's part, he earned the name of Corky. That was a pretty insightful comment on an alcoholic's new found sense of self worth.

At some point in the picture, I was reminded of 1962's "Days Of Wine And Roses", another movie dealing with alcoholics hitting rock bottom and then trying to get straight. In that one, it was a couple (Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick) that had to deal with their personal demons. Coming a decade later, it's probably the stronger of the two stories, but that doesn't diminish the effect that "Come Fill The Cup" will have on you. The story draws you in quickly and you find yourself totally engrossed in the characters, making it's almost two hour run time breeze by pretty quickly.

This One Is Filled Right To The Dramatic Brim

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 10 March 2011]

Come Fill The Cup is Warner Brothers answer to Paramount and The Lost Weekend. Come to think of it, the film could literally be where the Paramount classic left off.

Imagine James Cagney as the Ray Milland character as The Lost Weekend concluded. Remember both of them are writers, Cagney however was a newspaper reporter. He loses his job due to his alcoholism, but gets the same kind of wakeup call Milland got and goes back to working for the paper that hired him in the first place.

Flash forward about five years and Cagney is now city editor and the big boss, publisher Raymond Massey calls him in. Cagney has hired several former drinkers who are making a success on the paper and he thinks that Cagney is just the man to help straighten out his nephew Gig Young who is going down the same path. Young is a promising composer who has let his talent go to waste in a sea of booze.

Two things complicate the picture for Cagney. First Young is married, but separated from Phyllis Thaxter who used to be Cagney's girl. But also Young is now getting himself involved with Charlita, a little chanteuse from south of the border who gangster Sheldon Leonard has put his brand on. And to top that all off Leonard is the target of Massey's newspaper. It gets positively incestuous in Come Fill The Cup.

Gig Young got an Academy Award nomination for his role and his scenes of inebriation and withdrawal are every bit as good as the ones that got Ray Milland his Oscar for The Lost Weekend. Young lost in the Oscar sweepstakes to Karl Malden for A Streetcar Named Desire. The guy who should get some acclaim here is James Gleason who plays Cagney's roommate and sponsor in helping to kick the booze habit. Gleason's death scene and Cagney's reaction to it are the dramatic high points of the movie.

As for Cagney a lot of his usual mannerisms that sometimes carry along a bad film and make it better are missing. But he doesn't need them in playing this part.

I had not seen this film in several decades and quite frankly had forgotten how good it is. Demand that TCM show this one and demand that Warner Brothers get this out on DVD.

oy vey - the arrogance of the one percent!

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 6 February 2016]

I'm talking about Raymond Massey as newspaper owner John Ives in my title, but I'll get to that later.

James Cagney plays Lew Marsh, a hard hitting newspaper man who just can't stay away from the bottle. The last straw is when he comes back from a bender and starts to write a story that is five days old. His long suffering editor finally cans him. He is obviously well liked at the paper, and he even has a best girl - Paula (Phyllis Thaxter), who also works in the newsroom.

After he is fired, Lew tells Paula to forget about him, to go find a young healthy guy. Time passes and we see Lew staggering down the street looking haggard and dirty. He falls in front of a passing truck, but is barely missed being hit. An ex alcoholic, Charlie (James Gleason), sees all of this. Lew is taken to the hospital and tied down to a bed until he is past the DTs. He swears off drinking because he claims he heard "angel feathers". Drunks may be running from life, but they are running from death even more, and this brush with death is what did it for Lew. Charlie, an ex drunk himself, meets him as he comes out of the hospital, gives him a home and a job doing construction. A big test of soberness is when Lew sees news of Paula's marriage to the nephew of the owner of the paper he was fired from. He passes that test - barely.

Then comes news he is wanted back on the newspaper. The owner himself, John Ives (Raymond Massey, believes Lew has changed and gives him a second chance. Years pass - six of them to be exact - and then one day John Ives calls Lew to his office. The guy who married Paula, Lew's ex-girl, has become a hopeless alcoholic, and since Lew has had so much success himself and success with picking employees for the newspaper who are ex-drunks that stay sober, he wants Lew to help straighten out the nephew, who is like a son to him - Boyd (Gig Young).

Lew says what the nephew needs are doctors and nurses. Ives is insistent on Lew being the guy to set the nephew straight. This is where my title comes in. Apparently Ives is a hands-on owner, so he has got to know something about Lew and Paula being in a relationship years before. Lew could just not succeed on purpose to get Paula back - Paula and Boyd's marriage is already on the rocks, or being around Paula that much could have Lew falling off of the wagon and being Boyd's new drinking partner. There is even an unexpected gangster angle thrown into all of this. How will all of this work out? Watch and find out.

It's funny, Cagney left skid marks on his way out of Warner Brothers after "Yankee Doodle Dandy", but that studio always seemed to have him pegged for the right roles. The stuff he did independently never seemed to work out and click, yet Warner's put him in films where he made three of his best mature performances - this film, "Mister Roberts", and "White Heat"- and in all three he plays completely different kinds of guys and plays them well.

As far as supporting performances here, they are all excellent. Thaxter is lovely but demure here, first the long suffering girlfriend of one drunk and then the long suffering wife of another. Sheldon Leonard is terrific as a gangster just shortly before he becomes the most successful producer in television. Raymond Massey is very good as gray character John Ives, giving Lew a second chance at the paper years before he knows he'll even need him, but when he needs him to reform his nephew, he rather undoes that good deed by using it to propel Lew forward to do his bidding. And then there is James Gleason in a small but vital "get wise to yourself" kind of role that he had been doing in front of the camera so well for twenty years.

"The Lost Weekend" it is not - but just barely. It does stress the point that alcoholism is a permanent disease, one that the alcoholic is always battling. As Lew Marsh says "One drink is too many, and all the drinks after that are the second drink". Highly recommended if you can ever find it.

Realistic view of Alcoholism

[mikez41799 · 8/10 · 14 August 2005]

I only voted an 8 because the movie took on a gangster theme, but I guess it had to because that was Cagneys selling point. Other than that, I loved the movie. Being in recovery myself I could relate a lot to it and the trouble some people have getting sober. It really portrays the ugliness of alcoholism and the main sober character's( who dies) way to stay sober. The acting was great and the scene where there was a choice to drink or be shot showed the fear of drinking they had. Being shot would be easier. Cagneys character, although he did not really believe in a 12 step program, knew that helping others would save him. He went out of his way, knowing that ex-drunks make good employees,to get people jobs in the newspaper.

it can be found at http://shop.vendio.com/pressplayhouse/item/956600261/?s=1214649211

"unfortunately, the trip to Miami seems to have slipped my mind."

[DOGSLEDDER54 · 13 July 2004]

I consider it to be one of Cagney's best. A very entertaining film, not merely a morality play, complete with a good plot, witty dialog, and humor. In one scene, the local crime boss (Sheldon Leonard) "forces" two alcoholics to drink whiskey at gunpoint. In an ironic twist, one of the drunks deciding whether or not to quit the bottle in the film is Gig Young, a real-life alcoholic who later killed his wife and himself. The difference between this film and most others is its' contention that the alcoholic must want to quit, and that this desire must come from one's self. I nearly said "anti-booze" film, but that is not true. In it, most of the characters are able to drink without becoming alcoholics, just like in real life. Alcohol aside, this is a classic crusading newspaperman versus gangster story of the 40s and 50s with music and humorous twists for spice. This is definitely one of my favorite films.

one of the best

[catlynn54 · 10/10 · 19 September 2006]

I think this is one of the best movies ever made. It is an excellent character study and depiction of alcoholism, much better than "Lost Weekend". I hope that it will become available on DVD at some point. James Cagney was a remarkable actor and his ability to play flawed human beings as well as 'cartoon' characters in his comedies make his movies a joy to watch. Unfortunately I have been unable to watch this movie since sometime in the 1970s as I can never find it listed showing on TV anywhere and cannot locate a tape of it. Maybe someone somewhere will resurrect this wonderful movie and make it known to new generations of movie viewers. One can only hope.

An Almost Forgotten Cagney Gem.

[MartynGryphon · 10/10 · 25 July 2022]

In 1951 James Cagney's movie career had come of age. It had been 21 years since he had made his first feature with Warner Brothers and despite cementing his superstar status there, his relationship with Jack Warner had seldom been smooth. His period of operating as an Independent from the mid 1940's onwards under the guidance of his brother William, had not yielded the results neither of the Cagney brothers had expected and the films that were released during this period although artistically credible, had not found a favourable foothold with neither the public or the critics as they lacked the promotion and Hollywood 'ballyhoo' that would have ordinarily accompanied a release from a star of his calibre and his career had started to decline.

In 1949, he returned to Warner Brothers and the genre that had made him a star in the gangster classic 'White Heat' closely followed by another Gangster movie 'Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye'. However, it was a bittersweet return for Cagney as although these movies put him back on top, he was again being typecast as the 'thug' something he had spent most of the decade trying to escape from. Compensation came in the form of the opportunity to appear in another musical called the West Point Story with Doris Day and Virginia Mayo, however, it was his fourth movie after his Warner's return that gave Cagney the chance to stretch his acting canvas on a scale audiences had not really seen too much of.

In 'Come Fill The Cup', Cagney plays newspaper reporter Lou Marsh who is blighted by alcoholism. He is a good man with an all too human flaw. After turning up for work after missing five days due to a binge, he is fired and decides to climb into the bottle for good. He justifies his drinking to a bartender as follows:

"A lush can always find a reason if he's thirsty. If he's happy, he takes a couple of shots to celebrate his happiness. If he's sad, he needs them to drown his sorrows. Low, to pick him up. Excited, to calm him down. Sick, for his health and healthy, it can't hurt him. So you see Al, a lush just can't lose".

The fact that he says this quote whilst losing his job, his girlfriend Paula (Phylis Thaxter) and the respect of all of his friends and colleagues highlights his wilful denial.

We next see Marsh In what we must assume is a few months later, he is unshaven, scruffy and has been reduced to begging to random people in the street for small change to feed his addiction. One such person is Charlie Dolan, (James Gleason), who seems concerned enough to ask Marsh when he last ate, only to rebuked by the disinterested lush. After giving him a quarter, Marsh starts to make a beeline to the nearest bar, only to collapse when crossing the street narrowly avoiding getting run over by a truck. Marsh is taken to a hospital where a short montage shows his hellish recovery through Cold Turkey, night sweats and withdrawal psychosis.

Then comes the day that a sober and strong willed Marsh leaves the hospital determined not to have another drink after being told by his doctor that he will be an 'alcoholic for life' and 'alcohol is as poisonous to him as sugar is to the diabetic'. Outside waiting for him is Charlie Dolan, who being a reformed alcoholic himself, knows the uphill battle Marsh will now face and he invites Marsh to stay with him in his run down apartment block so he can offer the support he will no doubt need if he is to stay off the sauce.

After a period of aimless sobriety and menial jobs, as well as the news that his ex girlfriend Paula has now married the nephew of his old boss, Charlie suspects that Marsh may be in danger of falling off the wagon, unless his life is once again given some purpose, direction and stability. Charlie takes it upon himself to write to Marsh's old paper saying that he is now sober and to ask them if they are willing to give him a chance to redeem himself. His former editor agrees, but only offers him the shipping arrivals to start with until he has proven himself that he has beaten his addiction once and for all.

Six years pass and Marsh has not only stayed sober during this time, but he has worked his way up to be City Editor and now lives in a more spacious and luxurious apartment with Charlie in tow, with whom he has formed a firm and lasting friendship. He also employed a handful of ex-drunks in order to give them the stability he had found so they can also stay on the straight and narrow, none of whom had let him down.

Newspaper owner John Ives (Raymond Massey), impressed by Marsh's ability to, as he sees it, 'cure drunks' asks him to help out his nephew Boyd Copeland (Gig Young), the same nephew that has married Marsh's ex girlfriend all those years before who has also now become an alcoholic. Marsh protests, stating that he hadn't really cured anybody, and that he had only hired people who had already quit drinking in order to keep them busy and sober. Ives, shrugs this off as false modesty and effectively emotionally blackmails him into helping Boyd, by pointing that he had helped him six years ago by giving him a second chance.

Marsh flies to the Ives' palatial estate with Paula and Boyd is not there having gone out on yet another binge. The whole house is awoken in the early hours of the morning when Boyd comes home and starts playing his 'unfinished and will probably remain unfinished' piano concerto totally fortissimo.

It is revealed that Boyd has asked for a divorce from Paula so he can marry a Mexican dancer named Maria that he acquainted in Mexico, a revelation that not only breaks Paula's heart, but also has the potential to turn deadly as Maria is also the girlfriend of gangster Lenny Garr (Sheldon Leonard), who has already warned Boyd to stay away and left him with a souvenir of a minor knife wound to the back.

Through his contacts at the paper, Marsh finds out who exactly this Maria is and where she is now working and goes to see her to talk her out of her relationship with Boyd but without success and in the process comes face to face with Garr and warns him that if anything happens to Boyd, then he will use all his influence to put him behind bars for good.

Boyd moved in with Marsh and Charlie in the hopes that their influence will stop his drinking, but to no avail, after only a few days, Boyd escapes and goes straight to Maria's. Charlie knowing full well where to find him, goes there too and attempts to bring Boyd back. On the ride home, an inebriated Boyd, (who for some bizarre reason is allowed to drive), crashes the car and Charlie is killed. Marsh, who believing that Boyd's drunk driving has killed his best friend is devastated at Charlie's death and loses his cool and gives Boyd a beating at the crash site.

However, the experience of the crash and Charlie's death has also had a severe impact on Boyd and has been the catalyst needed for Boyd to want to give up the booze for good. Sadly losing his friend is also the catalyst that could see Marsh take his first drink in over six years. In fact, he is in a bar, drink in hand about to take a sip, when one of his workers rushes in to tell him that it wasn't Boyd's drunken driving that had caused the crash, but the break lines of the car had been cut and Boyd couldn't have stopped that car irrespective of his blood alcohol level. Realising that this was murder and under no illusion who was responsible, Marsh leaves the bar, drink untouched determined times nail Lenny Garr to the wall.

Meanwhile, Boyd is at Marsh's apartment going through cold Turkey and the accompanying DT's, haunted by Charlie's death. In desperation he rummages around the place until he finds a bottle of whiskey that Charlie kept as his 'quart of conscience', he also finds a gun and instead of taking a drink, decides that the gun would offer a more permanent solution to his addiction. Marsh arrives just in time to prevent Boyd's suicide and decides that despite John Ive's wishes, a hospital would be the best place for Boyd to get well.

After a period in the hospital Boyd is released clean and sober and is determined to stay that way as well as salvage his failing marriage. In the interim, Marsh has been putting the screws on Lenny Garr, but Maria is a loose end that needs to be tied up. Maria begs Boyd to help her with money to leave the country convinced that Garr is trying to kill her and so Marsh concocts a plan to not only reunite Boyd with his wife, but to get Maria to turn on Garr and testify against him.

On Marsh's instructions, he gets Boyd to bring Maria to his place and so he can convince her to testify and when he is gone, he also summons Paula so she can see the efforts that Boyd has been making to stay sober by placing photos of her around his apartment and in particular on the bar in front of all the liquor bottles. However Garr has followed Boyd and after he has returned to the apartment with Maria, he holds them all at gunpoint and explains how he is going to tie up these loose ends by staging a murder/suicide incident where Boyd and Marsh kill Maria when they were drunk and attempts to get them to take a drink. Garr is overpowered and is killed by Marsh when they struggle over the gun and not only does Marsh get his front page story, but Boyd and Paula are reunited and an appreciative Ives thanks Marsh for his efforts.

Come Fill the Cup is a great noir style melodrama and shows Cagney as more than just a tough guy who dances occasionally. Here we see him play a character that does not start strong, but finds strength within his greatest weakness. Gleason is brilliant as Charlie and you do share Cagney's emotion when he dies. Gig Young is brilliant as Boyd Copeland and his cold Turkey scene shows us that he could play more than the comic characters that we usually associated him with.

A great hidden Cagney movie and one worth watching.

Enjoy!

Worth seeing just for Gig Young's performance alone!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 17 February 2017]

When I saw Jimmy Cagney in this movie way back in 1951, I thought it just a routine melodrama. Now, of course, it shines like a beacon of Hollywood craftsmanship Gig Young was nominated for an Academy Award – and fully deserved it! Normally, a somewhat dull actor, it's hard to believe he had such a convincing, tour-de-force performance in him. Admittedly, he gets a bit of assistance from make-up, plus the atmospheric photography by Robert Burks, but it's nevertheless an interesting and astonishingly credible portrait. In fact, the film's strengths lie in its acting, plus its atmospherically bleak, low key, film noir photography, plus its punchy dialogue, its racy direction and its colorful probing of the world of the alcoholic.

True, not all the acting is totally A-1: Massey tends to overact and is somewhat unconvincing and Thaxter makes a somewhat colorless heroine. And the screenplay tends to be a bit preachy at times, but it holds the attention nevertheless.

What does tend to undermine our interest is the familiar premise that newspapermen are the salt of the earth. (Why did Hollywood genuflect before newspapermen? The reason is, of course, that before TV became fully established as a household necessity, newspapers easily stripped radio as the number one choice to feed movies to the masses). Another disappointing aspect is the low-key climax. And although some scenes are lavishly filmed (the crash, for example), others show signs of cost-cutting. Ray Heinforf's music score tends to be a bit Mickey Mousey, but on the other hand, his piano concerto is a most attractive piece that alone makes the movie worth seeing again and again.

Great Film!

[whearell · 29 December 2002]

Simply the best "recovery" movie! Cagney's performance is Oscar quality, as is James Gleason's. Even Phyllis Thaxter and Raymond Massey are believable in this film. The musical score is superb, with Grieg-esque overtones. Perhaps the best billboard (7 Dwarves Whiskey) in moviedom. 10/10

Wish I could Buy This Movie

[suzsophie-85457 · 25 August 2021]

Sure wish I could Buy this movie or they would show it on TV.

Does anybody know about this ??

Thanks in advance.

Another lost week -end

[dbdumonteil · 25 December 2006]

Six years after Billy Wilder,Gordon makes his own "lost week-end".Both Cagney and Gig Young are convincing in their parts of barflies desperately trying to find a way out of this hell.

I think that the film noir side weakens the film:all that concerns the "singer" (a gangster's moll) and the gang gets in the way.

On the other hand,Boyd's relationship with his mother is really frightening and it is a pity that the part of this over possessive woman was so underwritten.Almost every line she says is revealing: "Boy's sleeping" "He may get cold,I'm going to cover him up well".Too bad Phyllis Thaxter and her mother-in-law have virtually no scene together either.

A good film anyway.