Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

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.

vincentlynch-moonoi I don't know quite what to make of this film.On the surface, it's "just" the story of 4 fellows who graduate from college right in the middle of the Great Depression. One -- Franchot Tone -- seemingly does reasonably well moving into a job as a newspaper reporter, and finds his biggest challenges to be his love for a young woman in the upper class (Margaret Lindsay). His friend (Robert Light) goes to work for his wealthy father, and that turns sour when the father (Henry O'Neill...a fine character actor) commits suicide by jumping out of his office window...keep in mind that it is the middle of the Great Depression). Ross Alexander gets married fairly soon after graduation (to Jean Muir) and the newlyweds have a baby fairly quickly, and face the problems of paying to raise a family and medical bills. But the athlete of the group -- Dick Foran -- faces the biggest challenges as he can't find a coaching job, becomes a failed amateur boxer, falls in love, but can't keep his life together..Here's the question I have: what exactly does the title mean? Is it saying that only the true gentleman of the group -- Tone's character -- ends up being the successful one? Think about it if you watch this film.Franchot Tone does nicely here; I always found him to be an interesting actor -- not one of the great actors, but intriguing. Jean Muir, Margaret Lindsay, and Ann Dvorak do nicely as the love interests. Ross Alexander was an actor I wasn't very familiar with; after looking him up he led a disappointing life, even though he had potential as an actor. I always thought that Dick Foran was a limited actor, and here he proves that. I'm not saying it's a bad performance, but he was certainly a lightweight. Robert Light similarly turns in a light performance.As I was watching this film, I occasionally thought that I'm not exactly enjoying the film, yet I kept watching. I can't explain that. It's certainly better than a lot of films from 1934. So give it a try.

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.