Gentlemen Are Born

... and this fast moving little film using Warner Brothers' contract talent hits all of the important points of young people starting out with big dreams and what becomes of them all in the first couple of years after graduation. Young people today can probably see many parallels in the experience of the seven young people followed in this film versus what they experience today trying to elbow their ways into careers.

The story starts out on graduation day for four college seniors and buddies. Franchot Tone plays Bob, a guy who wants to be a newspaperman and has a crush on the sister (Margaret Lindsay) of fellow graduate Fred (Robert Light), who is all set up to go into the stock brokerage firm of his father. Tom (Ross Alexander) aspires to be an architect and marry his girl Trudy (Jean Muir) as soon as possible. Finally there is "Smudge" (Dick Foran) who has been the big college football player for four years and wants to parlay that into a coaching job.

Some of them - with difficulty and perseverance - get jobs in New York City - strangely enough this is the destination of all of them, none of the jobs pay that well, and roommates are a necessity in such austere times, often in boarding houses with a great view of the brick wall across the alley. Romance is found for all but Fred - he has the least screen time - but money is the roadblock for matrimony for all of them.

The film does a great job of interweaving the stories of all of the graduates, but the focus stays mainly on Tone's character, Bob, as a couple of times he has the distasteful task of being the action reporter on the scene of some tragedy related to his friends or their families. It is a harrowing journey but it has a rather upbeat ending with, ironically, Ross Alexander's character telling Bob to keep a stiff upper lip. This is ironic because Ross Alexander ended his own life just a little more than two years after this film was released.

If you liked the gritty reality of "Wild Boys of the Road" I think you'll like this film too. Highly recommended.

Some experiences in life are universal and timeless. This film illustrates one of them; getting started in life after finishing college. A modern college graduate will identify quite a bit with the frustrations and trials of the protagonists in this film. Life is challenging for just about everyone, unless you are born with a silver spoon.

Franchet Tone is the only A actor in this group, but the other members of the cast do a fine job as well. Compounding the problem of finding a job after school is the reality of The Great Depression, where bankers and lawyers were often selling apples or shining shoes. Worth viewing.

Four (4) Friends graduate from College and start on the adventure of bringing about a new life for themselves. One which has been promised to them by their status as graduates. Unfortunately they are being thrust into the economic maelstrom of the 'Great Depression' which in 1934 was entering its darkest days.

The Friends, lead by Franchot Tone (Bob Bailey) has journalistic ambitions, but finds himself writing for a Tabloid. Hardly what is he was looking for. Robert Light (Fred Harper) is on the fast track thanks to his Father (Mr. Harper) Henry O'Neill who is a Wall-Street Shark and crook. Ross Alexander (Tom Martin) just rolls with the punches and Dick Foran (Smudge Casey) All American finds that last years 'grid-iron hero' is todays bum. Intermingled with their struggle to earn a living is romance and love. Ably provided for, particularly by Margaret Lindsay (Joan Harper) for Tone and Ann Dvorak (Susan Merrill) who falls for 'Smudge' whose marriage ends rather sadly. 'Smudge' contracting lead poisoning. In the end some make it others like 'Smudge' do not, watch and see, it is worth it.

The cast does a fine job in what is a 'B' picture. Particularly Tone and Foran as the doomed 'Smudge' with Dvorak. Another standout is Charles Starrett (Stephen Hornblow) a classmate on the way up, but has no time for those he sees as 'losers' like 'Smudge'. Starrett though after a promising start with Paramount and M.G.M. would spend the rest of his career in 'B' Westerns.

GENTLEMEN ARE BORN (1934) is as timely today as back then, for in the early days of the 21st Century it's tough going out there. Even for those with a College Degree. It better be in something useful and not a 'Communications Major', nor a Lawyer, we have enough of those parasites already. After all there are only so many jobs in Professional Sports!

This Warner Brothers soap opera about four recent college graduates trying to make their ways in the depression and their lady loves is one of their A pictures but, while competently written and acted, is too diffuse to make a great picture. The large cast, headed by Franchot Tone on loan from MGM, has a myriad of interconnected stories whose frequently genteel handling is nowhere near as interesting as their earthy, snappy-pattered B movies of the period.

One nice point of the movie is that money is a real issue in this movie and the actors show it. Even Tone, who spent most of his career playing people who just happened to be out of pocket money at the moment, looks and behaves like a man whistling the dark and Dick Foran is excellent as a man who is defeated by the world. The woman are very good too, particularly Jean Muir. However the movie, while never descending below competence, never manages any moments that strike home.

TCM finally aired "Gentlemen Are Born" on 9 August 2011 as one of 24 hours' worth of Ann Dvorak movies, she being the star of the day. When Darryl Zanuck was in charge of production at Warner Bros., he would have never allowed this pathetic movie to go into production. The credits say Alfred E. Green directed this movie, so he must have, although I find that hard to believe.

Somehow, Franchot Tone got the starring role here, maybe Jack Warner thought he would lend some prestige to the movie, what with Tone usually working at MGM then. Franchot Tone's acting here is horrible, his thin-lipped smile makes him look like he is trying out for a role as the next Dracula. For me, the high point of the story was when Tone's character, Bob Bailey, working as reporter, asks the businessman father of one of his college chums if he is familiar with rumors linking the father's business to a bank that just failed. Mr. Harper, the father, tells Tone to wait in the outer office with his son while he goes into his private office. Next thing you know,Harper jumps out the window and Bailey is telling his editor by phone that Harper accidentally fell out the window, a story the editor isn't buying.

Margaret Lindsay is in this movie also and she looks great, even if her role is totally unreal. At least she doesn't end up like another college chum of Tone's played by Dick Foran. Foran's character gets beaten up in a boxing match, is wrongly tied in to a truck theft ring and gets mistaken as a stickup man.

Next time TCM shows this movie, avoid it.

29 November 2011: Robert Lee Johnson, responsible for the story and screenplay of this turkey, floated from studio to studio as a screenplay writer. He probably thought this movie would put him on the Hollywood map, with its mix of pretentious characters and preposterous storyline, all played with a straight face by the actors here. Instead, this movie tanked and Johnson went on to a career as co-scriptwriter for hire at any studio hiring.

If not for one voter here, my review would have scored all negative votes from the IMDbers who saw this movie. Darn it, too bad that one voter can't retract his positive vote. Those negative voters must live in world where it is the norm for crooked banksters to say say "excuse me" and then commit suicide by jumping out of their office window. If this movie were a comedy, that scene would have been a laugh riot. Trouble is, hack scriptwriter Johnson was being serious. This movie represents a real waste of director Alfred Green's talent.