Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Petri Pelkonen Rick Martin is a young boy who finds the love for music after his mother dies. The trumpet becomes his instrument, and he learns to play it from an old master called Art Hazzard. Young Man with a Horn from 1950 is directed by Michael Curtiz. Rick Martin is first played by Orley Lindgren, then by Kirk Douglas. Lauren Bacall plays his troubled wife Amy North. Doris Day is the singer friend Jo Jordan. Hoagy Carmichael is the pianist friend Willie 'Smoke' Willoughby. Juano Hernandez portrays Art Hazzard. The cast is quite superb. Douglas does excellent job in the lead. Especially when Rick starts having problems with the alcohol, then Kirk really has to act. And that he does really well! I think the movie becomes more interesting when it portrays all those problems this young man starts having. Problems with marriage, drinking. When it's not just about music and how good he is at it. Bacall's performance is very film noir, which works fairly good in this movie. Day is very touching in the caring she has for her friend. And she can really sing, which we all knew! If you're a fan of the main trio, if you like good music, if you like drama you should see this movie.

James Hitchcock I have never been able to discover why the title was changed from "Young Man with a Horn" to "Young Man of Music" when this film was shown in Britain. Did the British Board of Film Censors take exception to that rather obvious double-entendre in the original title, something which unaccountably escaped the notice of their American counterparts? Or was the change made in the interests of musical accuracy? The hero, after all, does not actually play the horn, at least not in the sense in which Classical musicians would understand the term. I know that jazz trumpeters (and also saxophonists) sometimes refer to their instruments as "horns", but this is primarily an American usage which might have confused British audiences. (In Australia it became "Young Man with a Trumpet").The film follows the rise, fall and rise again of a jazz trumpeter named Rick Martin. Besides Martin himself, it also focuses on four people who play important roles in his life. These are Art Hazzard, the man who teaches Rick how to play the trumpet, his close friend the piano player Smoke Willoughby, Jo Jordan, a singer who falls in love with him, and his wife Amy. (It has been suggested that Rick was based upon Bix Beiderbecke).Unusually for a film from the early 1950s when Hollywood still operated an unofficial colour-bar and black actors were mostly confined to minor roles, often as domestic servants, this one features a major black character in the shape of Art. Art, himself an outstanding jazzman, is not just Rick's teacher and mentor but also, in a sense, his adoptive father. (Rick is an orphan who never knew his biological father and whose mother died when he was a child). The name "Art" may be short for "Arthur", but I wonder if its use here was meant to imply Art's "artistic" nature. A theme of the film is the schism between two very different forms of jazz. There is the predominantly white music of the big bands and dance orchestras. This is a "conservative" style in that the musicians need to keep to a strict rhythm that people can dance to and play exactly what is written in the score. And then there is the traditional jazz favoured mostly by black musicians, much "freer" than the big band sound, both in the sense that the rhythm is less strict and in the sense that it allows the musicians more scope for improvisation and experimentation. Although Rick is white, the influence of Art means that he is instinctively drawn to this "black" music, but he nevertheless has to earn his living playing in an orchestra. (There is no money to be made from trad jazz). The differences between these two forms of music are reflected in the differences between the two women in Rick's life, although the parallels are not always exact. Jo, a sweetly innocent girl-next-door type who shares Rick's passion for jazz, can be seen as the safe, predictable conservative option. The beautiful, sophisticated Amy, who is studying to become a psychiatrist, seems to Rick to be more of a free spirit, spontaneous, unpredictable and dangerous, even though she has little interest in music. Despite their widely differing personalities, the two women are initially friends, although their friendship does not survive their rivalry over Rick. Paradoxically, Amy both looks down on Jo and envies her. She says of her "It must be wonderful to wake up in the morning and know just which door you're going to walk through. She's so terribly normal."It is precisely because Amy is not "terribly normal" that Rick marries her- and it is for the same reason that their marriage proves a failure. Even a free spirit like Rick needs some order and stability in his life, and a woman like Amy, who has deep psychological issues due to the suicide of her mother, is precisely the wrong person to provide it. (It is also suggested that Amy may have lesbian tendencies, although the Production Code meant that this suggestion had to be very veiled. So veiled, in fact, that Lauren Bacall never realised she was supposed to be playing a lesbian). The failure of his marriage sets Rick on a downward spiral in which he abandons his career and descends into alcoholism.There are a number of excellent acting performances, including Juano Hernández as Art and Hoagy Carmichael as Smoke. (Carmichael was best- known as a musician, but he made a number of acting appearances, generally playing a musician). I have not always been the greatest fan of Doris Day, but here she is excellent as the naive but wholesome Jo, as is Bacall as the husky-voiced sophisticate Amy. Both seem absolutely made for their roles to the extent that I could not imagine any other actress playing them. I could certainly not, for example, envisage Bacall as Jo or (even less) Day as Amy. And then of course there is Kirk Douglas as Rick; this may not be his most celebrated performance, but it is certainly one of his best, seeming to prefigure another film, "Lust for Life" about Van Gogh, in which he played a conflict-ridden artist.Other excellent features include the jazz score- the trumpeter Harry James actually performed the music Douglas is shown playing- and Michael Curtiz's striking photography of the New York urban scene; I wondered if this was an influence on Woody Allen's "Manhattan". The one weakness was the ending; the story of Rick's rise and fall is told in detail, but the story of his rise again in which he kicks his drink habit and rediscovers his love of both Jo and jazz seemed very rushed, something tacked on to provide the expected happy ending. Overall, however, this is the best film I know about jazz music. 9/10

inhonoredglory A very, very interesting movie – such complex and compelling characters! It's not a plot-driven film, which makes it so large in scope and realistic, actually, as we follow Rick Martin from childhood to adult life. The symbolism is quite profound and the theme, very worthwhile. Amy's (Lauren Bacall) inability to play the piano boldly reflects her inability to find a purpose in life. Rick's (Kirk Douglas) struggle to reach the high note on his trumpet reflects the impossibility of finding life's purpose in musical talent alone. Jo's (Doris Day) simplicity exemplifies the honest, selfless, caring goodness we should all strive for to be truly happy. Art Hazzard's (Juano Hernandez) words to Rick are also quite didactic when you think about it. A quite inspiring film, I'd say, that wonderfully moves above the genre/cliché summaries it is given on the DVD cover! And the music, of course, was top-notch. I loved hearing Harry James do his magic! And Doris Day, of course. What a musical feast! The acting, especially by Kirk Douglas, was very good. I actually came into this not caring much for watching Douglas, but in the end, he came off as a very likable guy, the occasional boyish innocence confused by a world that does not make sense.

wes-connors Dance band pianist Hoagy Carmichael (as Willie "Smoke" Willoughby) tells about how he palled around with legendary jazz trumpeter Kirk Douglas (as Rick Martin). We flashback to see lonely orphan Orley Lindgren (as young Rick/Kirk) show an interest in gospel music. He wants to buy a trumpet. While working as a pin-boy in a bowling alley, young Lindgren hears Juano Hernandez (as Art Hazzard) playing in a nearby nightclub. The kid is in ecstasy watching "Art Hazzard and His Dixie Pickers" from a hiding place and soon meets Mr. Hernandez, who teaches him to play the trumpet. Douglas idolizes Hernandez.Growing up fast, Mr. Douglas hooks up with our chain-smoking narrator, Mr. Carmichael, who helps get him employed. Next, a perpetually wide-eyed Douglas meets pretty girl singer Doris Day (as Jo Jordan), but he shows little interest in women. "You're married to that trumpet," Ms. Day observes as Douglas fails to take advantage her invitation to kiss. He's not interested in Carmichael, either - just the trumpet. That all changes when Day introduces Douglas to her sexy psychiatric student friend Lauren Bacall (as Amy North). But, the trumpet STILL gets in the way. And, if it isn't the trumpet, it's the bottle… The story is overwrought, predictable, and ends up being dull. Still, "Young Man with a Horn" has a few things going for it.The combination of director Michael Curtiz and cinematographer Ted McCord create a beautiful black-and-white picture; the street scenes with Lindgren and Douglas are great, as is Ms. Bacall's beautifully lighted apartment. Day and Harry James (dubbing for Douglas) perform several musical numbers. Carmichael does his thing well, and Hernandez contributes an especially dignified supporting performance. This film has become known for featuring a lesbian character, but even that is unexciting. Ironically, opposites attract as Bacall and Day look great on screen together, but the script neglects the possibilities.****** Young Man with a Horn (2/9/50) Michael Curtiz ~ Kirk Douglas, Doris Day, Lauren Bacall, Juano Hernandez