More or less fictional, this film tells the story of a lonely but musically inclined kid who grows up to be an ace trumpet player. Kirk Douglas plays Rick Martin, a guy with a one-track mind ... music. But whereas he could make a steady income playing in routine dance bands with their sing-a-long songs, Martin prefers the more free-form sounds of jazz.But jazz doesn't sell records, so Martin hops from one boring band to another, never finding satisfaction except when he's engaged with other like-minded jazz musicians. It's the old conflict of commercialization vs. art. Along the way Rick meets his true love, Jo (Doris Day), but gets sidetracked by a sultry academic named Amy (Lauren Bacall). And therein lies the main problem with this film.Amy is an annoying character. Since she relates not at all to music, every time she's on screen, we have to listen to her whine. She detracts both from Rick Martin and from the film's jazzy, moody style. These plot segments, which show up in the second half take us far away from jazz and into angst filled soap opera territory.Ted McCord's terrific B&W cinematography adds a lot. The lighting and interesting camera angles amplify the moody, downbeat tone, consistent with a 1940s urban visual style, helped along by effective sets and realistic costume design. Casting is acceptable except for Lauren Bacall, who is too overbearing. Doris Day is quite good. And Hoagy Carmichael does a terrific job, both in acting and in narrating the story.A satisfying film overall could have been rendered even better had the script kept the focus on Rick Martin and his love of jazz. That "Young Man With A Horn" didn't win any kind of award is unfortunate. It's a good film, especially for viewers who enjoy jazz and can appreciate the dreary, moody ambiance of 1940s urban America.

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.

***SPOILERS*** We get the story of confused and wayward trumpeter Rick Martin, Kirk Douglas, straight from the horses mouth Rick's good friend and pianist Willie "Smoke" Willoughby,Hoagy Carmichael. It was Willie who witnessed as well as suffered through Rick's greatest and worst moments in the movie. By the time Willie starts talking, at the start of the film, were not quite sure that by the time he finishes his monologue that Rick would be either alive or dead to hear it!As well soon see Rick Martin was in love with music and the music of his choice was jazz. Blowing up a storm with his trumpet Rick made heads turn not in how good he played his trumpet but how he put a little bit of heart & soul into it that most true and traditional music lovers found to be almost blasphemous! It was his good friend and mentor jazz trumpeter Nat Hazzred Juano Hernandez, who took a young Rick under his wing and taught him everything that he knew about playing the trumpet. In the end Rick, who was too into himself to care about anyone else, turned his back on an old and sickly Nat that had the old guy aimlessly walk into a major thoroughfare in midtown Manhattan and end up getting himself killed!What really shook Rick up was his strange attraction to collage psychology student Amy North, Lauren Bacall, whom he ended up marrying. Amy a closet lesbian was not in love with Rick but only interested in his success in the music world and wanted some of it to rub off on her! When Martin found out that Amy was having an affair behind his back not with another man but woman young art student Miss.Carson, Katherine Krasch,he completely flipped out! By then Rick's music career was already on the skids in him alway doing it, playing his trumpet, his way or no way at all. But in the fact that he was dumped by Amy for another woman was just too much for Rick to take!***SPOILERS*** It was Amy's friend who in fact introduced her to him band singer Jo Jordan, Doris Day, together with Willie who came to Rick's rescue when he was on both life support and in the drunk tank at Bellevue Hospital. Looking as if he was on his deathbed Rick managed to pull himself together and finally get off the sauce,liquor, and went back to playing his trumpet that he in a drunken stupor had earlier discarded. As the movie ends we see Rick, as a member of the band, belting away with his trumpet and hitting the both high and low notes as band singer Jo Jordan or Doris Day sings a sweet and beautiful rendition of "With a song in my heart".P.S "Young Man with a Horn" is one of the few if not only movies, that I can think of, made over 60 years ago that still has it's top or leading actors-Kirk Douglas Lauren Bacall & Doris Day-still alive with us today!

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.