Young Man with a Horn (film)

Young Man with a Horn
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Curtiz
Produced by	Jerry Wald
Screenplay by	Carl Foreman Edmund H. North
Based on	Young Man with a Horn by Dorothy Baker
Starring	Kirk Douglas Lauren Bacall Doris Day Hoagy Carmichael
Music by	Lauren Kirk
Cinematography	Ted D. McCord
Edited by	Alan Crosland Jr.
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	February 9, 1950 (1950-02-09)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Young Man with a Horn is a 1950 musical drama film based on a novel of the same name by Dorothy Baker inspired by the life of Bix Beiderbecke, the jazz cornetist. The movie stars Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, and Hoagy Carmichael, and was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Jerry Wald. The screenplay was written by Carl Foreman and Edmund H. North.

As a young boy, after his mother dies, Rick Martin sees a trumpet in the window of a pawn shop. He works in a bowling alley to save up enough money to buy it. Rick grows up to be an outstanding musician, tutored by jazzman Art Hazzard. He lands a job playing for the big band of Jack Chandler, getting to know the piano player Smoke Willoughby and the beautiful singer Jo Jordan.

Chandler orders him to always play the music exactly as written. Rick prefers to improvise, and one night, during a break with Chandler's band, he leads an impromptu jam session, which gets him fired.

Jo has fallen for Rick and finds him a job in New York with a dance orchestra. One night, her friend Amy North accompanies her to hear Rick play. Amy, studying to be a psychiatrist, is a complicated young woman still disturbed by her own mother's suicide.

She claims to be incapable of feeling love, but she and Rick begin an affair and eventually are married. Rarely together at the same time because of their demanding schedules, Rick and Amy constantly quarrel. She fails in her attempts to become a doctor and takes it out on Rick, demanding a divorce. He begins drinking and his mood deteriorates to the point that one day he even takes it out on Art Hazzard, a man who had done so much for him. Before Rick can apologize, Art is hit by a car and killed.

Rick becomes an alcoholic who neglects his music and even destroys his horn. He disappears, until one day Smoke finds him in a drunk tank. Jo is contacted and rushes to Rick's side, helping him to recover his love of music and of her—a happy ending found neither in the novel nor in the life of Bix Beiderbecke. Amy becomes the patron of a young woman artist.