Young Man with a Horn (1950)

Kirk Douglas: Rick Martin

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Quotes 

• Amy North : People try to find security in a lot of strange ways. You seem to have solved your problems - at least while you're playing that trumpet.

  Rick Martin : I don't understand a word you're saying, but I love the sound of your voice. It's got a wonderful rough spot in it.

• Rick Martin : [to Amy]  That trumpet's part of me. It's the best part. You almost made me forget that.

• Amy : You can call me Amy.

  Rick Martin : I bet I could.

• Jo Jordan : Can I lend you some money?

  Rick Martin : Wouldn't know what to do with it.

• Rick Martin : I'm not going to be tied down to anybody or anything. From now on, I'm playing it my way.

• Rick Martin : [to Amy]  What a dope I was. I thought you were class, like a real high note you only hit once in a lifetime.

• Rick Martin : [to Amy]  You're like those carnival joints I used to work in. Big flash on the outside, but on the inside nothing but filth.

• Amy : Call me sometime.

  Rick Martin : Call ya what?

• Rick Martin : I don't play for people. I play for myself!

  Art Hazzard : Look, boy, a man's got a lot of living to do in this world. But, you, you're kind of locked up inside yourself. You're like a - like bird trying to fly on one wing. You'll stay up for awhile. Then you're going to fall.

• Jo Jordan : The way you baby that thing, you'd think that it's alive.

  Rick Martin : Well, it's awfully good company. Whatever you tell it to do, it does - only better than you told it. It never lets you down.

  Jo Jordan : You're kind of sold on it, aren't you?

  Rick Martin : Well, you got to be sold or you got not business playing the kind of music I want to play. You got to love it. You can't just like it and understand it the way the longhaired boys understand their music. You can't write it down and keep it. There aren't any notes for it. You can only hear it right while you're playing it. You feel it.

• Rick Martin : You want every number played the way it's written?

  Jack Chandler : That's exactly what I want. What do you think I bought these arrangements for?

  Rick Martin : I don't know. Well, I mean, do we have to play every number the same way every time?

  Jack Chandler : That's right. This is no jam session. it's a dance orchestra.

• Rick Martin : Someday when I'm really good, I'm gonna do things with this trumpet nobody's ever thought of doing. I want to hit a note that - nobody ever heard before.

  Jo Jordan : You've got to have some other interests or you'll go off your rocker. I know. You need a hobby like collecting stamps or - or a dog or...

  Rick Martin : How 'bout a girl?

  Jo Jordan : Don't pick on me Rick. You're a married man.

  Rick Martin : Married?

  Jo Jordan : You're married to that trumpet. I certainly wouldn't want to come between you.

• Jo Jordan : You're probably broke.

  Rick Martin : Probably.

  Jo Jordan : A young man with a horn. A crazy young man with a horn.

• Amy North : Tell me about jazz. Do you think it's purely African?

  Rick Martin : I don't know. I don't do much thinking about it. I just like to play it.

• Rick Martin : I gather you don't like jazz.

  Amy North : Not particularly. Oh, I know it's supposed to be our native art. Cotton fields, the levees, old New Orleans and blues in the night.

• Amy North : Jo's interesting, isn't she? So simple and uncomplicated. Must be wonderful to wake up and know which door you're going to walk through. She's so terribly normal.

  Rick Martin : She's a good singer too.

• Jo Jordan : Rick, what's the matter with you? Why do you live in left field all the time?

  Rick Martin : I don't know.

  Jo Jordan : If you keep on like this you're gonna live in joints and work in dives all your life.

• Rick Martin : [singing]  People call him Lovin' Sam,

  Rick Martin , Willie 'Smoke' Willoughby : He's the Sheik of Alabam', He's a mean love-makin', A heart-breakin' man,

  Rick Martin : And when the gals go strollin' by,

  Rick Martin , Willie 'Smoke' Willoughby : Boy, he rolls a wicked eye, Does he step? Does he strut? That's what he doesn't do nothin' else but!

  Rick Martin : Could you love like Lovin' Sam

  Rick Martin , Willie 'Smoke' Willoughby : You could have your eggs and ham, In the finest kitchen down in Alabam',

  Rick Martin : You'd make the high-brow babies cry for ya...

• Amy North : We'll put your alter ego away.

  [takes Rick's trumpet] 

  Rick Martin : My what?

  Amy North : Latin. A dead language that ideally suits me. It simply means "your other self."

• Amy North : I envy you, Richard, but I don't quite understand you.

  Rick Martin : As far as you're concerned, doc, that goes *double* for me.

• Amy North : How long have you been playing the trumpet?

  Rick Martin : Since I was a kid.

  Amy North : Ever want to do anything else?

  Rick Martin : No.

  Amy North : Even when you were a kid?

  Rick Martin : No.

  Amy North : Because even then you knew you'd play better than anyone else. That's it, isn't it? Me, I've been an intellectual mountain goat, leaping from crag to crag, trying everything. You don't know how lucky you are.

• Rick Martin : I don't wanna own a car or anything else. Gives you too many things to worry about.

• Amy North : You're not being at all understanding or generous, Richard. Not even friendly.

  Rick Martin : Maybe it's because I'm not your friend. I'm your husband.

• Rick Martin : Just a few more licks. Just a few...

• Rick Martin : You can do a lot of things, Amy, so you don't do any of them. I can only do one. That trumpet's part of me. It's the best part. You almost made me forget that. You're so confused yourself, you got me confused.

  Amy North : I'm not confused any longer. I'm fed up with you! I'm sick of you trying to touch me. I'm sick of the sound of brass.

• Rick Martin : Amy, why did you ever marry me?

  Amy North : I think it was a wonderful experience for both of us. Besides, how do you know about anything until you try it?

• Rick Martin : Hey, Smoke. Hey, you know what we ought to do? We ought to make our own records. Make 'em the way we want. Boy, we could make records that'd really split 'em wide open. Make them sit up. Do some of the old ones Art used to do, like - "Dinah" and "Twelfth Street Rag" and - "Louisiana Blues."

  Willie 'Smoke' Willoughby : They won't buy 'em.

  Rick Martin : Who won't?

  Willie 'Smoke' Willoughby : People. You know who buys records? High school girls. You know why? To learn the words. They only buy the new songs to learn the words.

• Amy North : Talk is vastly overrated. It's action that counts.

  Rick Martin : I know it is. And don't think I haven't wanted to crack you on the jaw before this. I don't know why I haven't done it. Probably because I'm still in love with you.

  Amy North : That's very sweet. But that sort of conflict can lead straight to an ulcer. My prescription for you is a double Bromo Seltzer.

• Rick Martin : They don't have to listen to us. We can play for ourselves. We got no words. We-We can't--say what we mean. We just gotta feel it.

• Rick Martin : A funny thing happened to me yesterday. I got lost.