Saturday, April 01, 2006

Young Man with a Horn (1950)

Synopsis: Talented but self destructive trumpet player gets involved with the wrong woman. 
Appraisal: This film is not much remembered nowadays, and perhaps justly so. The dialogue is terribly dated (at one point a character, supposedly a neurotic, sophisticated woman, asks: "Tell me about jazz. Do you think it is purely African?"), and some of the situations too. There are marvelous musical numbers, but their enjoyment is almost spoiled by the exagerated tragic overtones of the story. Maybe I sound harsher than I intend; in any case, the B&W cinematography has the usual excellence of American films of the 50s, and the acting is uniformly good. 
Rating: 41

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