Young Man with a Horn (1950)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Dorothy Baker (novel)
Carl Foreman (writer) ...

Release Date:

9 February 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Music | Romance

Plot:

Aimless youth Rick Martin learns he has a gift for music and falls in love with the trumpet. Legendary...

Plot Keywords:

Jazz | Trumpet | Alcoholism | Beautiful Woman | Nightclub

Cast

Kirk Douglas	...	Rick Martin
Lauren Bacall	...	Amy North
Doris Day	...	Jo Jordan
Hoagy Carmichael	...	Willie 'Smoke' Willoughby
Juano Hernandez	...	Art Hazzard
Jerome Cowan	...	Phil Morrison
Mary Beth Hughes	...	Marge Martin
Nestor Paiva	...	Louis Galba
Orley Lindgren	...	Rick as a boy
Walter Reed	...	Jack Chandler

Also Known As:

Young Man of Music (UK)
Young Man with a Trumpet (Australia)

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:PG (video rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Even while married to pinup-girl Betty Grable, Harry James was notorious for his womanizing. Peter Levinson, in his biography of James ("Trumpet Blues") notes that during the filming of this movie, James contacted Doris Day's manager to ask what he thought were James' chances of "nailing" Doris.

Quotes:

Rick Martin: [to Amy] What a dope I was. I thought you were class, like a real high note you only hit once in a lifetime.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Monkees: The Monkee's Paw (#2.19)" (1968)

Soundtrack:

THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU

Hollywood Jazz

Once one gets over the strangeness of seeing Kirk Douglas playing the trumpet, this one turns out to be a pretty good movie about an obsessed, self-destructive jazz musician, adapted from Dorothy Baker's novel, which was based on the short, remarkable life of jazzman Bix Biederbeck. Director Michael Curtiz once again shows himself a master of screen biography, albeit highly fictionalized in this case. His flair for capturing urban nightlife is sublime, as he has an intuitive understanding of the lonely moods that city people go through; their sudden changes in fortune, for reasons they scarcely understand; and the inability of anyone, really, to get a grip on modern life.

Miscast as a musician though he is, Douglas is quite good with the darker and more volatile aspects of his character's personality. Lauren Bacall is far less good as his society girl-friend with a lesbian streak, Doris Day marginally better as his True Love. There are some excellent supporting bits by Juano Hernandez and Jerome Cowan. This is overall a satisfying film, too slick for its own good in parts, it's not the best of its director's works, but it's in the high middle range.