‘THEY GAVE HIM A GUN'

Evening Star, Issue 22882, 14 February 1938, Page 2

‘THEY GAVE HIM A GUN '

SPENCER TRACY AND FRANCHOT TONE Spencer Tracy demonstrates his remarkable ability for the fourth successive venture in ‘ They Gave Him a Gun,’ which will be scon on Friday at the Empire. This is the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer adaptation of the best seller by William Joyce Coweu, former soldier, who expressed his hatred of war in the novel. Directed by AV. S. Van Dyke 11., the film has Tracy, Gladys George, and Franchot Tone in the principal roles. The supporting cast includes Edgar Bearing, Cliff Edwards, Mary Trcen, and others. The war scenes were filmed on the vast 500-acre tract where Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made ‘ The Good Earth.’ The story deals with two men and a woman. Tracy is a circus “ barker ” who enlists in the regulars. Tone is a small-town clerk who finds himself in the army and up in the front lines. A gun gives him courage. Gladys George is a Red Cross nurse. AA’hen Tracy is reported missing she marries Tone out of pity. The latter escapes from an enemy prison camp, and the trio meets again in civil life when the war‘ended. Familiar now with the use of a gun, the weakling has become a gangster. Tracy tries to save him, but fails. _ A police bullets gets in ahead of him.

As a story and a picture to reflect the evils of war and its aftermath, ‘ They Gave Him a Gun ’ is a powerful medium. But it is more than that. It affords Tracy ami his colleagues an opportunity for first-rate artistry, which none of them has overlooked.