A musical biopic inspired by the life of trumpet player Bix Beiderbecke. Although the Hollywood version predictably plays fast and loose with the truth, Kirk Douglas (although his trumpet miming isn't the greatest) gives a typically fierce and intense performance as the young man of the title, but Hoagy Carmichael almost steals the film as his laconic sidekick Smoke. Although written by the formidable team of Carl Foreman and Edmund H North, the screenplay, which is rather a long way from the real facts, tends to be overwrought and contains the classic line: 'Put down your trumpet, jazz man, I'm in the mood for love.' Lauren Bacall performs a thankless task well as a girl who lures Douglas away from the musical freeway, and Doris Day is the singer who tries to put him back there, while adoring him from afar. An absorbing dose of Hollywood myth-making, thanks not least to the professional polish applied by director Michael Curtiz.


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