Young Man with a Horn | | Cast : | Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day | | Director : | Michael Curtiz | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | February 09, 1950 | | DVD Released Date : | April 26, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | NR (Not Rated) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | Impressive Parable of Race Relations in the USA | Content
 | I was struck watching it this time around with how very much the racial politics of Dorothy Baker's roman a clef are present in Curtiz' version of the story. Well, as it happens the movie was written by Carl Foreman, the left-leaning screenwriter, soon to be blacklisted, who was responsible a few years earlier for HOME OF THE BRAVE, the first Hollywood film to delve seriously into the problems of the black soldier and vet, the film that made a star out of James Edwards.
In YOUNG MAN, white trumpeter Rick Martin's nightly pilgrimage to "GALBA'S" club is almost an obsession with him, obviously he is there to somehow suck up the black jazzmen's talent for improvisation and, for lack of a better word, you might call "soul." Every night he's there, for hours, after his own shift gets off at 1:00 a.m., and sometimes they invite him up with jam with them. It's during one of these late night sessions that he delivers a heart stopping, angel-sweet version of Richard Rodger's luscious "WITH A SONG IN MY HEART." He's framed in a black and white composition with lustrous grays glinting up and down the trumpet, courtesy of the insanely talented cinematographer Ted McCord, who did so many of the Warner Brothers noir-tinged features, everything from FLAMINGO ROAD to JUHNNY BELINDA. Juano Hernandez is the black jazz master Art Hazzard, who plays the hidden idol of both Kirk Douglas' and Doris Day's character. When they watch him play in the nightclub, a conventional set without his usual fire, the disappointment, bewilderment and realizations in their gaze show us so much about race relations in the USA in the quick-moving postwar era. Hernandez was on a roll in 1950, fresh from his triumph in Clarence Brown's INTRUDER IN THE DUST, this Curtiz film was but one of three movies he made this year! And soon, for Juano Hernandez too, the so-called "gray-list" would remove him from cinema screens for years to come: too uppity, too independent, too ethnic, too righteous. Check out his portrayal of Hazzard in this film, it is a corker.
YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN is a mood picture, and Kirk Douglas is up for the challenge. It's nearly a tone poem of difficult relations between humans--Kirk's guilt, Doris' sudden and embarrassing desire for him, Lauren Bacall's rich, affluent, smorgasbord sexual preference games. It has something for everyone, if you've got nothing to lose and the sky over your head has lost its stars. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 04, 2005 | | Summary | GREAT SOLID ENTERTAINMENT AND PERFORMANCES! | Content
| Kirk Douglas is fantastic! Doris Day is incandescent and a fine dramatic actress and Lauren Bacall is fabulous as a neurotic shrew! This movie has it all....it is heartwarming, yet dramatically engaging in its melodramatic moments. And the music....ah...perfection! |
| Rating | | | Date | June 21, 2005 | | Summary | ONE OF KIRK DOUGLAS' BEST PERFORMANCES! | Content
| This is Douglas' picture most of the way with kudos being thrown to Doris Day for her talented acting and singing. The cinematography is perfect 40ish film noirish and the music is incredible. I wish I had access to the soundtrack!! This is one movie that did not disappoint me. Most fun scene to watch: Lauren Bacall as she breaks Kirk Douglas' 78 records!! Most Memorable song: Doris Day's version of "With a Song in My Heart" and the ending still packs a wallop! I won't give it away...you'll have to buy this fine video and see for yourself! |
| Rating | | | Date | June 17, 2005 | | Summary | GREAT FILM, GREAT MUSIC, GREAT CAST! | Content
| This is an outstanding film of 1949 with a young Doris Day in only her 3rd picture, I believe. The jazz music is outstanding and the cast headlined by Day, Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall is perfect! Day especially shines because of her incandescent singing (especially on "With a Song in My Heart"). This is one of those forgotten gems that Hollywood made perfectly! This is also one film I will watch over and over again! It cannot be bettered! |
| Rating | | | Date | May 14, 2004 | | Summary | Doris Day, Kirk Douglas, Lauren BaCall in a jazz setting. | Content
| A boy (Orley Lindgren) loses his father who passes away and is sent eventually to California. He has problems in school and doesn't really care to go anymore. He goes to a mission chapel mostly full of drunk people, where he hears a lady playing piano. There he picks up piano playing rather quickly and practices every night. One night he hears jazz playing in a bar. The men appreciate his good ear for music. They buy the boy a trumpet.
As a man (Kirk Douglas), he searches for a band where he can be the trumpet player. At the Aragon Ballroom, he fits right in with the band even though his playing is quite selfish. There he meets Doris Day, the lady singer of the band.
Also in the cast is Lauren BaCall. Jerome Cowan was in several films of the "Blondie" film series.
It is not Kirk Douglas playing but Harry James dubbed in.
Very depressive movie to watch. |
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