Test Pilot

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 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+

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.

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?

A good movie but alittle too sappy for my taste. It needed more aerial sequences and less Myrna Loy.

Did you know that in the fly-over showing a ball park has been indicated to be the legendary WRIGLEY FIELD of Chicago, Illinois?

Well, it's actually WRIGLEY FIELD in Los Angeles, California. Which was demolished in 1969.

Sorry, all you Cub fans, but it's not WRIGLEY FIELD in Chicago!

This movie highlights much of the information of early aviation.

As a side note, check out the credits, and you'll notice the name Frank Wead, Naval Academy grad. This dude was a total boss and helped promote United States Naval aviation from the beginning to the end of World War II, Commander Wead even got into writing movies. He consulted in over 30 of them, including the this flick "TEST PILOT".