Synopsis
World War 1 battle action, gangster life, a love triangle and antiwar elements combine in They Gave Him a Gun, directed by WS. Van Dyke II (The Thin Man). As the story opens, worldly-wise Fred takes naive Jimmy under his wing at boot camp, helping the gun-shy youth he calls Hayseed adapt to the army. The two friends see action in the trenches, and Jimmy uses the marksmanship he developed to wipe out enemy machine gunners. Jimmy gets medals...and Rose, the nurse who agrees to marry Jimmy after she erroneously believes Fred has been killed in battle. Postwar, Jimmy is no longer reticent about guns and secretly is a mob hit man. Then Fred inadvertently encounters his old army pal, setting in motion events that put Jimmy's marriage and life in the balance. Spencer Tracy gives a firm, compelling performance as Fred; Franchot Tone plays Jimmy, and, in a role that mirrors her later work in The Roaring Twenties, Gladys George is Rose.