Come Fill the Cup 1951

Lew Marsh is a capable newspaper reporter whose talent is undercut by a drinking problem that leads to dismissal and the heartbreak of losing Paula Arnold, his former colleague, after a street-side blackout.

An ex-alcoholic, Charley Dolan takes him in, offers a room, and helps him land a steady job with a construction crew. Lew’s resolve is tested again when he learns that Paula Arnold has married another man, Boyd Copeland, the nephew of Lew’s former boss at the newspaper, John Ives.

Ives gives the newly sober Lew a second chance at the paper, and months pass during which Lew not only remains sober but becomes a steady support for others fighting the same illness. This earnest work draws Ives’s attention as Boyd’s drinking and behavior become more erratic. Lew discovers that Boyd has been unfaithful to Paula with a singer named Maria, who is loved by the jealous gangster Lennie Garr. To help, Lew invites Boyd to move in with Charley and him, and he quietly hopes Paula will consider a renewed life with him as well.

Garr and a henchman rig a car to murder Boyd, but Charley is killed by their plan instead. A depressed Boyd feels responsible and contemplates suicide, while he reconnects with Maria, though they are being tailed by Garr. At gunpoint, Garr orders Lew and Boyd to drink, hoping to frame their deaths as accidents, but the two fight back and Garr is killed. In the aftermath, Boyd convinces Paula to give their marriage another chance, and Lew—now sober and back at work—feels a quiet sense of fulfillment, glad to have helped others and to have rebuilt his own life.