Huievest
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Jenni Devyn
Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
MartinHafer
Although at the height of the Depression the unemployment rate was about 25%, you'd never have thought this based on movies coming out of Hollywood at the time. A few, such as "Wild Boys of the Road" (1933), talked about the widespread unemployment...but most films showed well-fed, happy and successfully employed people. You really wouldn't have believed that there was a Depression based on the movies...especially since so many had to do with very rich folks and seldom the very poor. Because of this, "Gentlemen Are Born" is an oddity because it deals with these struggles to find work during this era. And, it came from one of the only studios that DID talk about the Depression, Warner Brothers.When the film begins, four young men are eager and ready to graduate college and go into the job market. However, a rude awakening awaits three of them. Jobs are scarce and underemployment common. In other words, you find one of the guys taking on day labor and boxing just to have enough to eat...even with his diploma! And, through the course of the film, mostly the guys and their wives/girlfriends experience heartbreak after heartbreak as it seems as if the system is stacked against them. Suicides, crime, hospitalizations, unemployment and more make this a film that seems like a call for social change. And, considering how strong the voices were for socialism and communism were during this era and how adamantly the studios fought this, the film comes off as a bit shocking. But it's also well made and an excellent window into a sad bygone era...with excellent acting and lots of heartbreaking moments. A sad but fascinating and rather realistic (for a change) look at the Depression.
boblipton
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.
gerrythree
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.
xerses13
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!
