THEY GAVE HIM A GUN

Five foot one Jimmy, who loves his mother and his crippled father and his job and his small home town, is bewildered when the draft catches him and finds hope only in the consolation that a gun makes up for his lack of inches. He learns all the gestures -- but remains the small town boy. Even the aftermath of the war and his reluctant affiliation with a gangster mob to earn a living, can't change him fundamentally. After a pathetic-comic trip home, he finds happiness and the end of the road. The story could have been hard-boiled and tough -- but somehow one keeps a tender feeling for home-loving Jimmy, and a sympathy softens what bitterness creeps in. An original story -- and a good one.