night. Badly rattled by all this, Rick begins drinking. Art finds him in a bar and tries gently to offer advice and help. Overwrought with his own problems, Rick takes his frustrations out on his visibly failing, soon to be unemployed, friend. In a fog after Rick's treatment, Art wanders out of the bar and straight into the path of a car. By the time Rick learns of it and can rush to the hospital Art is dead. Returning home Rick finds Amy torturing a piano concerto after failing her final exams. They immediately quarrel. The idea of trying school again is clearly less attractive to her than going to Paris with a new girlfriend to dabble at becoming a painter. She admits to Rick that she only married him because she hoped that some of his grounding in his own talent would rub off on her. Having returned to being a cold fish towards him, she rejects his attempts at comfort. The next night Rick goes to Art's funeral instead of attending a cocktail party Amy throws. He arrives home just as guests are leaving; she is drunk and angry at him for embarrassing her in front of her circle by not showing up. They argue viciously, then she introduces him to her new girlfriend. He tells Amy she is sick and should see a doctor, and leaves her. Unable to keep his fury pent up, and disgust at allowing himself to be stultified playing in a dance band, he immediately gets fired, then neglects even his own music. Broken, he descends deeper into the bottle. 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 around as a common rummy. One night he collapses in the street and a cab driver takes him to a sanitarium. It turns out he has pneumonia and is in danger of dying. Smoke has him transferred to a hospital, where he can be treated for both. Jo hurries to his side and helps him recover his health. He does, rediscovers his music, and finally is able to return her love. Cast Kirk Douglas as Rick Martin Lauren Bacall as Amy North Doris Day as Jo Jordan Hoagy Carmichael as Willie 'Smoke' Willoughby Juano Hernández as