1950 Young Man with a Horn Lobby Cards with Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Man_with_a_Horn_(film)
Based on the novel of the same name by Dorothy Baker, which itself is based on the life of Bix Beiderbecke; an example of film noir with Bacall playing a
central female character who is bisexual.
Young Man with a Horn is a 1950 American musical drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Hoagy
Carmichael, and Juano Hernandez. It was based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Dorothy Baker inspired by the life of Bix Beiderbecke,
the jazz cornetist. The film was 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 (adult Rick played by Kirk Douglas), tutored by jazzman Art Hazzard (Juano Hernandez). He lands a job
playing for Jack Chandler's big band, getting to know piano player Smoke Willoughby (Hoagy Carmichael) and beautiful singer Jo Jordan (Doris Day). Jack
orders him to always play the music exactly as written. Rick prefers to improvise, and one night, during a break with Jack'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 (Lauren Bacall) 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. Though she claims to be incapable of
feeling love, she and Rick begin an affair, which consumes him so completely he begins to neglect his old friends. Jo eventually tries to warn him against
getting too involved with Amy, suggesting that she will hurt him because of her mental health, only for Amy to stun her by telling her that she and Rick
have already married.
Amy does not enjoy Rick's music and is not interested in his career, focusing on her own psychiatry studies. Rarely together because of their demanding
schedules, they begin to quarrel and Amy sometimes does not even come home at night. All this affects Rick profoundly; his mood deteriorates and he
begins drinking. Art finds him in a bar and tries gently to offer advice and help. Rick feels guilty about neglecting their friendship but takes his frustrations
out on Art, this man who has done so much for him. Unbeknownst to Rick, Art is struck by a car after leaving the bar and is severely injured. Later, arriving
late for his job at the club, Rick hears about Art and rushes to the hospital. Before he can see him, however, he is told that Art has died.
At home, Rick finds Amy restlessly playing piano after failing her final exams; she is considering either trying again or going to Paris to become a painter.
She admits to Rick that she only married him because she is jealous of the security he has in knowing what he is good at and being able to do it; and rejects
his attempts at comfort. The next night, after Art's funeral, Rick returns home at the end of a cocktail party Amy has thrown; she is drunk and angry at him
for not showing up to meet her friends. They argue viciously and he tells her she is sick and should see a doctor, and leaves her.
Now an alcoholic, Rick gets fired from the orchestra and neglects his music. At a recording session with Smoke and Jo, he plays erratically and loses control
of his instrument, trying to reach a magic note he has dreamed of. He destroys his horn and drops out of sight, wandering aimlessly, getting thrown out of
bars. One night, he collapses in the street and a cab driver takes him to an alcoholic sanitarium. He has pneumonia, however, and the officials there call
Smoke, who arranges for Rick to be moved to a hospital. Jo hurries to his side and helps him recover his health, and both his love of music and of her.