Burk Symon Movies

The life of tragic jazz great Bix Beiderbecke is given the "a clef" treatment in Warner Bros. Young Man With a Horn. Kirk Douglas plays the Beiderbecke character, here named Rick Martin. An ace trumpter player, Martin is one of the few white musicians to flourish in the black-dominated jazz scene of the 1920s. Chafing against the dullness of the "respectable" orchestras for whom he works, Martin finds at least two kindred spirits in the forms of torch singer Jo Jordan (Doris Day) and piano player Smoke Willoughby (Hoagy Carmichael). He rises to popularity with his own group, and along the way falls under the spell of wealthy jazz patroness Lauren Bacall. After marrying Bacall, Martin begins neglecting his music and turns more and more to alcohol. When he skips one of her fancy parties to attend the funeral of his mentor Juano Hernandez, Bacall angrily smashes all his jazz records, effectively ending what was never a very solid relationship. Crawling into a bottle, Martin loses his touch with the trumpet-a heartbreaking sequence, in which he goes to pieces in the middle of the pop standard "With a Song in My Heart". Unlike the real Beiderbecke, who died of alcoholism at the age of 28, Rick Martin is rescued by his faithful friends Day and Carmichael. Kirk Douglas' trumpeteering in Young Man with a Horn was effectively dubbed by Harry James, while jazz pianists Buddy Cole and Jimmy Zito make uncredited soundtrack contributions. The film was adapted by Carl Foreman and Edmund H. North from a novel by Dorothy Baker. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Randolph Scott plays one of the members of Quantrill's Raiders, staging attacks on Kansas on behalf of the fallen Confederacy in the years following the Civil War. During one raid, Scott kills the man he holds responsible for the death of his brother. The dead man was innocent, and Scott becomes a fugitive from justice. Months later, he resurfaces as the marshal of a Kansas town, in which he routs a vicious gang with the help of another social outcast, Jesse James (Dale Robertson). Written by western "regular" Frank Gruber, Fighting Man of the Plains was one of a group of Randolph Scott oaters produced independently by Nat Holt and released through 20th Century-Fox. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The second entry in Monogram's "Father" series was 1949's Leave It to Henry. Raymond Walburn returns as small-town blowhard Henry Latham, while Walter Catlett reprises his portrayal of bombastic Mayor Colton. Preparing for their town's Centennial celebration, Henry and the Mayor stage a reenactment of a famous steamboat fire. Things get out of hand, and the upshot of this is a stiff jail term for poor Henry. The supporting cast includes such never-fail character players as Ida Moore, Olin Howlin and Harry Harvey. But the principal attraction of Leave it to Henry is the comic rapport between Raymond Walburn and Walter Catlett (who, offscreen, had been close friends since boyhood). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A favorite of the 1930s exploitation circuit, Birth of a Baby is a simple, unadorned story of an expectant couple (Eleanor King, William Post Jr.) Concerned about the health factors of the upcoming delivery, the couple consults a kindly obstetrician (Richard Gordon). The birth takes place without a hitch, and everyone is happy. So what's the big deal? It seems that, as a means to "hype" the film, documentary footage of an actual birth was spliced into the last reel. A model of decorum by today's standards, this footage was sufficiently provocative in 1938 to permit the film's exhibitors to ballyhoo the picture as "daring" and "controversial." In many cities, it was shown to segregated-by-sex audiences: men were not allowed in the theatre when women were present, and vice versa. In itself nothing special, Birth of a Baby is a prime example of old-fashioned (and very successful) hucksterism ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi