Test Pilot

This film is essentially about testing planes for the war that anyone who even had a passing interest in international affairs knew was unavoidable, World War Two. The plot deals with the experimental phase of flying military equipment, of which the United States had inferior quality and little quantity in 1938. In the interest of progress, test pilots were willing to take to the air and strain both themselves and their equipment beyond normal bounds. The mythology is enhanced by the prologue in terms of the lack of the publication of "the specifications of government aircraft." It is probably just as well since America's enemies generally had better aircraft before the American involvement, except perhaps for the C-47 and the B-17. This initial disclaimer only sharpens the fiction of the film. The movie is worth a look if one is even mildly interested in aircraft lore.

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.

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.

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.

A strange movie from 1938 that has a major white elephant sitting squarely in the middle of the plot that is impossible to ignore from a 2016 perspective.

Clark Gable is the test pilot of the film's title, who falls hard for and marries farm girl Myrna Loy (Loy is about as convincing as a Wichita farm girl as I would be, but this is Myrna Loy we're talking about, so who cares?!!) Their courtship is treated as a screwball comedy, with Gable and Loy generating so much chemistry my television almost malfunctioned. But Loy struggles with the transition back to their everyday married life as she realizes the fear she feels every time Gable goes back to his job is something she has committed herself to for life.

The white elephant in the room is the character of Gable's mechanic and buddy, played with a scowl by Spencer Tracy. I don't know how anyone could watch this movie and not at least entertain the notion that Tracy's love for Gable is more than platonic. He seems to have no interest in women, or indeed in any life that does not include Gable. It's almost as if he and Loy have a tacit understanding that they're in love with the same man and agree to help each other through the trials and tribulations that come with that.

Gable is Gable. Loy has never been better. She wasn't challenged often and was even usually underused in my opinion, but this is her movie and she ably demonstrates her range. Tracy is utterly wasted. Indeed, if the homosexual subtext isn't intentional, then there is literally no reason for him to be in the movie other than to be someone to whom Loy can deliver her lines when she's not delivering them to Gable.

A mood of death and impending destruction overshadows the whole film. Whether or not this was an intentional reaction to world events at the time, it seems appropriate given the gathering shadow of world conflict that was growing in Europe.

"Test Pilot" received no Oscars but was nominated in three categories: Best Picture, Best Original Story (Frank Wead), and Best Film Editing (Tom Held).

Grade: B+