Der Testpilot

I just watched this for the first time. It starts as a light romantic comedy and becomes deeper as the story evolves. The dialogue is especially well-written, fast-paced and witty. Myrna Loy's performance is a stand-out - not to slight Gable and Tracy in any way! - with nuance that grows more complex as the movie progresses. I was particularly impressed by the screenwriter's skill in developing the relationships among the three lead characters; Tracy's gradual love and respect for Loy; Gable's discovering the depth of his feelings for her; and her struggle to be the wife of a man who constantly puts himself in harm's way. It's the kind of measured (thoughtful, not boring) film that rarely gets made today, when the emphasis would be on the action scenes. Just an excellent, intelligent film all 'round.

Victor Fleming and the cast were my main reasons for seeing 'Test Pilot', the cast also playing a major part as to why the film is as good as it is. It is hard to resist a director responsible for two of the best films ever made ('The Wizard of Oz' and 'Gone With the Wind'). Nor a cast that includes the likes of Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy and Lionel Barrymore, just having one of those four in a film is reason enough to see it but all four in the same film really does wet the appetite.

'Test Pilot' was in no way a disappointment in my view, actually found it on the most part a delight. After seeing so many films etc recently that completely squandered their potential, which always leaves me very frustrated, it was great to see a film that actually lived up to one's expectations. It does fall short of perfection, just, and it is not quite one of Fleming's very finest. 'Test Pilot' does though entertain, move and charm throughout and the cast are on top form here, which does make up for the second half being not quite as good as the first.

Will start with the strengths. Which are a great many, the best brilliantly executed, and vastly outweigh the debits. It looks great, with it being handsomely photographed and the aerial sequences still hold up very well today in this regard. More so than a lot of aerial sequences in a lot of films made in a similar time frame. The music doesn't feel too melodramatic or intrusive, while Fleming directs with an assured hand throughout. The dialogue is very amusing in the first half and when it gets deeper it manages to excel just as much in the dramatic poignancy too. The story always absorbs, with a first half that is genuinely entertaining and also the exciting aerial sequences, sparkling chemistry between Gable and Loy and a charming, sympathetic one between the former and Tracy.

Gable balances authority, humour and pathos beautifully, bringing a twinkle and depth to his role. Loy has perhaps 'Test Pilot's' most difficult role and one of the most demanding in her career, she gives a poignant and sincere performance without going overwrought. Tracy's character is the least interesting of the three but his sympathetic charm is a beautiful match for the chemistry he shares with Gable. Barrymore's crusty demeanour, in a way that only he could do it to this great an extent, really stands out in the acting department.

Sadly, this review is coming onto the debits. As said above, the not as entertaining and deeper second half is not quite as good. It's well meaning and moving, handling seriousness with enough tact, but did find some of the events rushed, the romance (which can lack the same amount of spark that the aerial sequences have) unrealistically so, and the momentum is not always there.

It also did feel a little too much of a different film to the first half, heavier, deeper and more serious, not bad things exactly but tonally it doesn't gel as much as it could have done.

Altogether, delightful on the most part but just falls short of being completely great. Instead settling for a very strong very good. 8/10

A film which gives one a sense of what it must have been like in the early days of aviation as pilots were employed to test airplanes to their breaking point, just prior to World War II. Directed by Victor Fleming and co-written by Howard Hawks, the film received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Editing, and Frank Wead's Original Story.

Clark Gable plays the pilot, Spencer Tracy his friend and assistant. During a failed time and distance flight for his boss (Lionel Barrymore), Gable meets Myrna Loy when he lands in her father's field. Even though she's somewhat engaged to a local boy (played by Ted Pearson), he sweeps her off her feet and they hastily marry.

Loy's character then learns of the hazards and the heartache of being a wife of such a daredevil, especially after another in her husband's profession (played by Louis Jean Heydt) is killed. The title character turns to drinking. Tracy, Loy, and even Barrymore, must then work together to help Gable's character mature and perhaps utilize his skills in another more stable way.

Noted character actors Samuel Hinds, playing a General who wants the most from the planes, Marjorie Main, playing a landlord the penniless trio (Gable, Loy, and Tracy) convinces to let them live in her apartment on account, and Virginia Grey also appear.

Entertaining if somewhat cliched action movie with a bit of romance thrown in for good measure too. Gable is the devil-may-care test pilot of new aeroplanes for the U.S. airforce with Lionel Barrymore as his kind of booking agent. Testing isn't really the correct word as it seems that Gable's Jim Lane is required to take his aircraft to beyond its limits so that it cracks up or breaks down at which instant he has to engineer a hasty escape via parachute. On the ground, his lifestyle similarly seems to know no bounds as we see him boozing and partying as if there was no tomorrow, which of course is the whole point. This is a man with no ties and no cares, with a reckless outlook towards living it seems certain will catch up with him.

Until one day, that is, when he touches down his plane in a distant field, owned by a good-natured farmer and his wife, whose pretty daughter, Ann, played by Myrna Loy, comes down out of curiosity to greet the dashing interloper. When she realises he's Gable, of course her initial prickly resistance melts and they marry within days, a bit to the chagrin of Gable's engineer, best pal and conscience Gunner Morris, played by Spencer Tracy, possibly a bit jealous to lose his mate to this new country girl.

The high risk of the job is underlined further during an air race when a fellow competitor is killed in a plane Lane was meant to fly, although it does enable us to see Lane's softer side as he donates half the winning prize money to the deceased's distraught widow.

This sad event accentuates the point that Loy has to settle somehow to the thankless role of new wife to a man who takes his life in his hands every time he goes out to work or somehow change him. Morris soon warms to her but elects to join Lane in his most dangerous test yet as he is commissioned to pilot a new, transport plane loaded to the max and take her up to 30000'.

Gable is his usual testosterone-fuelled self and Tracy is solid as his grease-guy. Loy is bit too fluttery in her part for my taste, but Lionel Barrymore is good as Lane's avuncular taskmaster employer. The public in the 30's seemed to enjoy movies involving aircraft and there's no doubt that the airborne sequences here are exciting to watch and mostly believable.

A fine Golden Age Hollywood adventure movie, light on characterisation perhaps but, with good if sometimes obvious writing and mostly strong acting, it will certainly give you a lift when you watch it.

Clark Gable is the one in the title role and Spencer Tracy is his best friend and mechanic. Test Pilot portrays a footloose and fancy free Gable doing a dangerous job because he's entranced by the beauty and danger of flying. Tracy is along to give him a reality check every now and then.

While trying for a coast to coast record Gable has trouble with a fuel line and has to make a landing in a Kansas wheat field that just happens to belong to Myrna Loy's parents. She's the farmer's daughter all right. Of course a little of that Gable charm and she's off in the wild blue yonder with him and spends the rest of the film worried about his daredevil behavior. She's not in Kansas any more.

This was the second of the three Gable/Tracy co-starrers. All three of them, San Francisco, Test Pilot, and Boom Town have withstood the test of time and have become classics.

Test Pilot's original story was written by Frank "Spig" Wead who's life story was brought to us in the film Wings of Eagles. Wead was a flyer himself until a fall in his home left him a paraplegic. After that he became a writer and several of his stories were filmed. In fact Gable and starred in Night Flight earlier on which was written by Wead. Of course Wead had a great feel for the type and character of the people who chose aviation as a career.

The aerial sequences are first rate and the players settle comfortably in their parts. It's got aerial action for the guys and romance for the gals. How can you go wrong?