They Gave Him a Gun is a 1937 American crime drama film directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starring Spencer Tracy, Gladys George and Franchot Tone.

The picture bears a resemblance to later films noir, with its dark theme regarding the struggles and failures of a man trying to take a criminal shortcut to the American dream.

The screenplay was written by Cyril Hume, Richard Maibaum and Maurice Rapf, based on the 1936 book of the same name by William J.

Van Dyke "announced Henry Mahan was cast in 'They Gave Him A Gun', joining Sam Levene and Teddy Hart, the three swell comedians in the film version of Three Men on a Horse", but none of these actors appear in the final cut.

[4] A young man named Jimmy unexpectedly becomes a World War I hero by killing all the Germans in a machine gun nest.