PWNYCNY There is so much one can write about when a movie is bad, or flawed, or poorly acted, or has a contrived story, lack of continuity, no feeling, or shallow, superficial, or without any artistic value. In this case, there is little to say, so excellent is this movie. This movie warrants only superlatives, in all aspects of its production: from the production, to the direction, to the story, to the cinematography and to the acting. All those elements combined to produce a masterpiece. The movie is about life, and about people living that life. People who are vulnerable, flawed but caring. Nothing in the story is corny or contrived. It's about working class people in a working class society who want to achieve, to do something, be something, and above all to live and make a difference. This movie features Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, and Hoagy Carmichael. All delivery outstanding performances. The music is great and figures directly in the story. But most significant is the horn. To find out why, watch the movie.

ferbs54 Based on Dorothy Baker's 1938 novel "Young Man With a Horn," which emulated the life of jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke, the 1950 Warner Bros. filmization finds its star, Kirk Douglas, following up his knockout performance in 1949's "Champion" in truly winning fashion. Here, he plays Rick Martin, a gifted trumpeter whose love of improvisatory hot jazz keeps getting him in trouble with the more constrictive dance bands that he works in to make a living. His story is told in flashback by his pianist pal "Smoke" Willoughby (a particularly well-cast Hoagy Carmichael), who introduces us to the preteen Rick. A handsome, aimless youth, Rick only perks up when he discovers the piano at a local gospel meeting. His love of music fueled, Rick toils away in a bowling alley to earn money for a pawnshop trumpet, on which he is instructed by his mentor, Art Hazzard, leader of a band called Art Hazzard and His Dixie Pickers. The film follows Martin's rise to fame after arriving in NYC, and his involvement with two very different sorts of women: Jo Jordan, a sweet, wholesome big-band singer, and a mixed-up, sultry, neurotic bad girl, Amy North, who becomes Rick's wife. These two women are portrayed by Doris Day and Lauren Bacall, and really, is it necessary to even mention who plays whom?Though based on Beiderbecke's life, "Young Man With a Horn" contains some important differences. Beiderbecke, who played the cornet, not a trumpet, also started on the piano, which he taught himself at age 3; much younger than Rick. He did, however, start on the cornet at age 14, a fact that adheres fairly closely to the film. Also like Rick, Bix supported himself by playing in commercial big bands, while indulging his love for hot jazz on the side. Both men had alcohol problems, but whereas Bix died of pneumonia at the age of 28 (in 1931), Rick's bout with pneumonia only led to even greater success. And whereas Bix' heyday was the 1920s, Rick's was very much the noirish '40s. As mentioned, Douglas gives another spectacular performance here, really making us feel the anguish of the true artist. Just like his Vincent van Gogh in 1956's "Lust for Life," Rick follows his own muse and could not care less about the monetary aspects of his art. Douglas is completely convincing when required to simulate his trumpet performances (big-band leader Harry James, also the musical adviser on this film, provided the awesome, actual playing). Douglas, though portraying a rather mild-mannered, soft-spoken character, still gets to give one of his patented, seething rants, toward the end of his marriage with Amy; fans should just love seeing him shove Bacall around as he finally busts loose. Lauren, for her part, is just fine as his mess of a wife, and Doris gets to shine as well...and sing such standards as "The Very Thought of You" and "Too Marvelous for Words." Kudos should also go out to young Orley Lindgren, who plays Rick as a child--how touching it is when his eyes fill with tears, as he listens to Hazzard play for the first time!--and to Juano Hernandez as Hazzard himself, whose gentle instruction and support of Rick, throughout their careers, is a mainstay of the film."Young Man With a Horn" was yet another feather in the already crowded cap of Hungarian director Michael Curtiz, who here elicited sterling performances from his cast and gave his film an ofttimes noirish feel, especially in the picture's latter sections, which make excellent use of NYC locations (Rick's drunken stumble beneath the 3rd Ave. el may bring to mind Ray Milland's similar walk in 1945's "The Lost Weekend"). Curtiz, who had already helmed such Warner Bros. favorites as "Captain Blood," "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "The Sea Hawk" (all starring Errol Flynn), as well as such "minor" films as "Casablanca," "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "Mildred Pierce" and "White Christmas," here worked with Douglas for the first and last time. He had already directed Doris in her first two films, the musicals "Romance on the High Seas" (1948) and "My Dream Is Yours" (1949), and would go on to work with her in 1951's "I'll See You in My Dreams"; likewise, he would go on to direct Bacall later that same year in "Bright Leaf."In a film with any number of superb scenes, several yet manage to stand out: Rick performs (appropriately enough) "With a Song in My Heart" in Greenwich Village's Galba's jazz club in front of his old mentor, Hazzard; Rick plays trumpet in accompaniment to the church spiritual "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" at Hazzard's funeral, following his drunken temper tantrum at the older man; a washed-up Rick hits the skids and wanders around town, in a sequence that may also bring to mind Susan Hayward's Lillian Roth character taking a similar, urban, sodden perambulation in 1955's "I'll Cry Tomorrow." But what most viewers will come away with here is the feeling of having encountered an uncompromising artist who holds true to his ideals no matter what, and a reaffirmation of real music's worth in an increasingly dumbed-down, commercialized industry. "They only buy the new songs to learn the words," Smoke tells Martin at one point; words that were never more true than they are today....

edwagreen Kirk Douglas in a musical and it actually succeeds. From a horrible childhood, the Douglas character emerges to play the trumpet with great impact on his life.His ruination comes in the form of wife Lauren Bacalle, a person who can't seem to finish anything in her quest to be a psychiatrist. Problem is that she is in need for therapy herself. Unstable, neurotic and a misery to be with, Bacalle etched an unforgettable character. Then there is Doris Day, sort of breaking out into the drama genre which would serve her so well 5 years later in "Love Me or Leave Me." Day belts out hits such as Rodgers and Hart's With A Song in My Heart. It's not Jane Froman but the writers of that classic song, Rodgers and Hart, would be well pleased by her rendition.There is a very good supporting performance here by Juana Hernandez, an under-rated African American actor of the period. With a gentle voice, he tried to get Martin on key.Douglas is great here, especially in the scenes of his torment. There was one scene in particular where I thought he was capturing Van Gogh in "Lust for Life." That would come 6 years later.

bob-790-196018 This movie is generally described as "loosely based" on the Dorothy Baker novel, which in turn is "loosely based" or "inspired by" the career of Bix Beiderbecke. Wrong. The movie has absolutely nothing to do with Bix's life. Even the musical instrument involved is not the same--Bix played a cornet, which has a somewhat different sound quality from the trumpet "played" by Kirk Douglas here.I could list the details of the career of Rick Martin (the lead character played by Douglas)and compare them with those of Bix, but I would be here all day. There simply are no details that are similar.One good thing about the movie is the trumpet music supplied by "musical consultant" Harry James, which is dubbed for Douglas. Anyone who enjoy's Bix's wonderful solos, however, will see no similarity at all in sound or style between Bix and James. Not that it matters that much, given what I've already said about the movie.Kirk Douglas plays Kirk Douglas--not a bad thing, really. Lauren Bacall, who is really beautiful in this film, plays an unbearably self-centered, spoiled woman, and the character is really quite a bore. Every time she appears on screen, the movie grinds to a halt, unless you take all her posturing and foolish talk seriously.Bix pretty much killed himself by drinking and never developed into the great jazz master that he seems destined to have become. But even so he gained the respect of an undoubted master, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, and Bix was influenced early on by Armstrong's innovative performances, though the two men really did not play the same sort of music.In the movie, the "Armstrong" character is a trumpeter named Art Hazzard, played by Juano Hernandez. While Armstrong was a man of enormous gifts,appetites, and personality--a real force--the part written for Hernandez is more that of the "kindly Negro" favored in the 1950s by those professing to have no race prejudices. It's quite a comedown for Hernandez, who was wonderful, two or three years earlier, in his role as Lucas Beauchamp in the movie adaptation of Faulkner's "Intruder in the Dust." Hoagy Carmichael, who knew Bix Beiderbecke, does his usual shtik as the piano player who's been around. We see him at his piano, endlessly smoking. Another boring performance in the film.And then there's Doris Day--lovely and talented and delightful to see and hear. When she is on screen, this otherwise dumb movie just lights up.