YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN

There is a fairly robust sub-genre of films based on the lives of famous twentieth-century musicians. I won't bother to mention them all here but among the best are WITH A SONG IN MY HEART (1952),  THE GLENN MILLER STORY (1954), THE BENNY GOOODMAN STORY (1959), THE GENE KRUPA STORY (1959) and Clint Eastwood's BIRD (1988). 

Although loosely based on the life of trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke, YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN (1950), is a fictional account of a very determined (some would say obsessed) young musician named Rick Martin (Kirk Douglas). YOUNG MAN can be seen in some ways as a precursor to Martin Scorsese's underrated NEW YORK, NEW YORK (1977), which also featured a driven young musician embroiled in a love-hate relationship with a female singer. In fact, YOUNG MAN and NY, NY would make an outstanding double bill. 

Douglas is solid as Martin, who starts out as a young orphan who is mentored by jazzman Art Hazzard (Juano Hernandez). Martin eventually masters the trumpet (all of the trumpet playing is by Harry James) and finds work with a big band where he meets singer Jo Jordan (Doris Day) and piano player Smoke (Hoagy Carmichael). Martin can only relate to life through his music and wants desperately to play music his way. 

Martin joins a prestigious night club orchestra and begins earning good money. But after playing at the upscale club, he journeys to the Village for an after hours jam with Art's band in a lesser joint. Along the way, Martin is introduced by Jo to Amy North (Lauren Bacall), an overly intelligent, hyper neurotic woman. They fall in love and marry only to find that Amy resents Martin because there's one thing that he's really good at while she has failed in a multitude of endeavors. 

Things come to a head with the dissolution of their marriage, the death of Art (Martin wasn't there to tell him goodbye) and Martin's spiral into alcoholism. He wanders the streets of New York, his arm clutching a horn that isn't there. He hits rock bottom and for a second, you think the film is going to end on a down note. But this being a 1950 Hollywood picture, Martin comes to terms with his life and abilities and begins his career anew. 

YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN is greatly enhanced by the noirish cinematography of Ted D. McCord. The cast is uniformly excellent, the screenplay by Carl Foreman and Edmund H. North compelling and the direction by the masterful Michael Curtiz is first rate. 

YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN is a terrific portrait of a talented, self-destructive man and his struggle to express himself with both his music and real human connections 

Thumbs up.