Art Hazzard Jerome Cowan as Phil Morrison Mary Beth Hughes as Marge Martin Nestor Paiva as Louis Galba Walter Reed as Jack Chandler Production Composer-pianist Hoagy Carmichael, a friend of the real Bix Beiderbecke, added realism to the film as Rick's sidekick and gave Kirk Douglas an insight into playing the role. Famed Big Band trumpeter Harry James dubbed Douglas' playing in a Swing Era soloist's style. In her authorized biography Doris Day described her experience making the film as "utterly joyless", particularly working with Douglas. According to her, Douglas aspersed her ever-cheerful persona as only a "mask" that had kept him from ever being able to get to know the real person underneath. She countered that while Douglas had been "civil", he was too self-centered to make any real attempt to get to know either her or anyone else. In the Baker novel, Amy is described as having lesbian tendencies; the film employs period Hollywood connotations and hints to circumvent the Motion Picture Production Code and strongly imply her bisexuality. For example, regarding Jo, Amy says: "It must be wonderful to wake up in the morning and know just which door you’re going to walk through. She’s so terribly normal." Later, Amy, who has already come to refusing Rick's physical advances, dismisses their future together by telling him she may leave for France with a new girlfriend to study art, whom she later shares an affectionate goodnight with in front of her already fuming husband. The tacked-on happy ending of the film was found neither in the novel nor in the life of Bix Beiderbecke, who died of alcoholism at 28. Reception According to the contemporary The New York Times, "banalities of the script are quite effectively glossed over in the slick pictorial smoothness of Michael Curtiz's direction and the exciting quality of the score. The result is that there is considerable good entertainment in Young Man With a Horn despite the production's lack of balance." In spite of the screenplay, the Times praised the performances of Douglas, Day, and Carmichael, but noted "the unseen star of the picture is Harry James, the old maestro himself, who supplies the tingling music, which flows wildly, searchingly, and forlornly from Rick Martin's beloved horn. This is an instance where the soundtrack is more than a complementary force. It is the very soul of the picture because if it were less provocative