The men's artistic individual all-around event was part of the gymnastics programme at the 1932 Summer Olympics.

István Pelle of Hungary took silver and Heikki Savolainen of Finland earned bronze; it was the first medal in the event for each nation.

Neither 1930 World Champion Josip Primozic of Yugoslavia or 1931 World Champion Alois Hudec of Czechoslovakia (who had scored below Savolainen in total but had reached 60% in each exercise) competed in Los Angeles.

Italy made its seventh appearance, most among nations, having missed only the 1904 Games in St. Louis.

In the all-around, each competitor performed a compulsory and an optional exercise on each of 4 apparati: parallel bars, horizontal bar, rings, and pommel horse; the vault featured 2 compulsory and 2 optional exercises for each gymnast.