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.
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Katgal9810 October 2012
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bkoganbing19 December 2005Clark 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? -
jotix10020 November 2010Aviation in the 1930s in America was already gaining ground. Naturally, all those new planes that were going to be put into service by the Army were supposed to be tested. People like Jim Lane were needed to see how those revolutionary models being introduced, stood through a series of tests proving they were air worthy and how they handled themselves in different conditions.
"Test Pilot" directed by Victor Fleming, a favorite director of Clark Gable, the star of the film, was an ambitious project for MGM, the studio that produced it. Written by Frank Wead with the help of an uncredited Howard Hawks, a genius in his own right, the film must have been seen as a breakthrough for the way it presents all those daring men and the flying machines.
The story brings centers in the relationship among Jim Lane, the ace pilot, Ann Barton, the Kansas girl he marries, and Gunner Morris, another pilot. The story does not make much sense because at first, Ann Barton looks she is a normal, well adjusted woman, who decides to throw away her quiet life in Kansas to follow Jim into an uncertain life having just met him. If that is not a stretch of the imagination, we do not know what is.
The relationship between Jim and Gunner, the good friend, suffers because he is secretly in love with Ann; he realizes what the dashing Jim is doing to this lovely woman, but he stays out of the picture. His first loyalty is to him, not to Ann. Drinking affects Jim's life and eventually his own relationship with the woman that loved him, but he is lucky in having her stay with him.
Mr. Fleming got good performances from the three principals, Clark Gable, the lovely Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy. This was the second time Gable and Tracy worked together in what developed into a great pairing of buddies. There is chemistry between Loy and Gable. The supporting cast includes Lionel Barrymore, Marjorie Main, among others. -
This second pairing of Gable and Tracy was a great follow-up to the exciting "San Francisco" which was their first film together. Tracy was fast-becoming a very big star had an expanded role, but was still Gable's side-kick; something he would soon tire of. But all three stars, Gable, Tracy and Myrna Loy have a wonderful chemistry together. They play both the comedy and drama of the film with great ease and truthfulness. This trio, along with the wonderful Lionel Barrymore really make the film work.
This isn't quite standard MGM fare. Underneath the fun-loving natures of the leads there is a slowly building sense of doom that begins to wear on them all. Tracy's character gives the tension a voice in his quietly stated mantram "Three Roads".
As with the earlier film pairing, "San Francisco", "Test Pilot" was considered quite a fine action film with terrific special effects. Although, the latter suffers greatly in the special effects department today, while "San Francisco" still holds up quite well due to the excellent camera work, editing and creative special effects.
There is one scene in particular that is fun to watch when you know the back story. It takes place rather early on with Gable driving a car with Loy sitting in front with him, and Tracy sitting in the back. The scene's lines are only between Loy and Gable with Tracy sort of listening and chewing gum. Gable was quoted after the premier complaining in an envious but lighthearted manner about that "damn Tracy, we're acting our asses off, we have all the lines and he's still the only one you watch!" Gable had a life-long respect for the great acting prowess of his co-star.
Also look for Gable's last speech at the end of the film. While lecturing a group of air force recruits he suggests that the're either "cracking wise or giving him the bird!" The first time that gesture was ever mentioned on screen!
A great 1930's MGM classic. Don't miss it! -
Lejink4 August 2019Entertaining 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. -
hcoursen4 August 2007The flying shots are often very good, particularly since they look to have been taken from another aircraft. The planes are antique, even by late 30s standards. The sleekest fighter resembles a P-36, already obsolete (vs. the Zero and the Me 109). The B-17 is the early model sans tail gun. Loy is an improbable farm girl and her conflict with the flamboyant Gable (in love with the wild blue dress yonder) is unconvincing compared to the witty interchanges with Powell in the Thinman films. Tracey, without a great part, shows how good he is. He just raises an eyebrow or lowers a lip -- no wonder Gable envied his acting! But watch this one as part of a "history of flight" course -- not necessarily how it was done back then but how it was depicted. And there is some truth to the mythology that inter-war flying in this country was done by a bunch of loners, rogues, and madmen. We were only a few years from the more mechanized approach to turning out pilots in great and necessary quanities, in schools where "training" was really done.
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jacobs-greenwood16 October 2016A 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. -
atlasmb25 August 2013Test Pilot surprised me with how good it is. As a love story, I rank it right up there with The Way We Were.
Clark Gable plays a test pilot, Jim, who lives hard and fast. Like many who live on the edge, he is superstitious and has an addictive personality. To cope with the risks he must take, he never deals with his feelings and drowns his fears in excesses of liquor and women.
Then he meets Ann, played by Myrna Loy--a fresh-faced, wisecracking Kansas girl who falls hard for the guy. Likewise, he falls for her and before you know it, they are married.
After they are married, Ann learns quickly what life with Jim must be like. It is a harsh reality that she cannot shake; she loves the mug.
Jim's sidekick is Gunner, a guy who also loves him but has learned to cope with Jim's short-sighted view of life. When Ann enters the picture, it becomes more than he can bear; he can endure his own pain, but cannot stand to witness hers.
We see a love story that can only end in pain, made all the more painful because all three characters are lovable.
The writing in this movie is among the best I have seen. There is not a false note in the entire film. It's difficult to write this kind of banter without making it seem false or shallow. Later in the film, when the going gets tougher, the writing conveys the feelings deep within even when they are talking only about the mundane.
It has been written that Myrna Loy liked this film best of all she acted in. Personally, I would give her the Best Actress award for this performance, though she was not even nominated.
Gable holds his own. And Tracy plays Gunner with a convincing subtlety.
Victor Fleming, who directed The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind the very next year, had another winner in this one. I am surprised it does not get much mention. -
AlsExGal4 June 2017... the script crashes and burns. Gable plays a test pilot who crash lands in Myrna Loy's corn field. A whirlwind courtship ensues and the couple flies back from whence Gable came, except they are married. Gable loses his job because of his delay, but soon picks up another one as test pilot. When one of Gable's friends dies in an aerial contest - the audience has met the entire family right before the contest so you KNOW it is curtains for this guy - suddenly Myrna Loy realizes the danger of her husband's profession. Really? He did crash land in your cornfield. The only reason that didn't kill him is your cornfield was not a high rise! So why am I giving this six out of ten? Well there are some cute scenes, such as when Gable returns with his new wife and realizes that she needs a night gown for the wedding night. Loy could have done this shopping herself, but it did make for a cute scene with a bewildered Gable lost in the clutches of the lingerie department of a local store. Much more romantic than 80 years later with strangers hooking up on Tinder like they are ordering steel belted radials and all of the romance of buying tires to boot.
Then there is the acting. Loy is sharp, witty and at the same time touching and unaffected. Gable is masculine, gruff but vulnerable, a sort of trial run for Rhett Butler, and with the same director as in "Gone with the Wind" too. As for Spencer Tracy, as Gable's mechanic and buddy I can't say it was a bad performance he gave, but it was the oddest one I've ever seen after Tracy left Fox and came to MGM. He plays it like he is Harpo Marx, practically mute for the entire movie. In fact that is exactly what it is like - as though Harpo Marx is wearing a Spencer Tracy suit.
Victor Fleming directed this one, and Howard Hawks and Spig Wead were two of the four writers. Perhaps this one could have been more tightly delivered if Hawks had been the director.
I'd mildly recommend this, but if you get through it, scratch your head, and say "What exactly was the point of this?" all I can say is you are not alone. -
vivace878 March 2004I've only seen this movie twice, but I guess I forgot how good the dialogue is until I watched it the second time the other day. Most films from around this time were teetering on the B edge, but this one is very well done. Mostly, though, it was the way the script was written (or the way they ad libbed it) that really made the movie. It's clever but not overdone and definitely not sappy. The way they talk to each other, especially Ann and Gunner, works in such a way as to keep you guessing and not having any idea what they may say next. I was not expecting to see that but it's very effective. Most of the rest of the movies from this genre were your stereotype typicals, and you don't get into this kind of dialogue until well into the 40s and on into the 50s. I was impressed.
Loy and Gable work very well together and don't leave anything to be desired. The chemistry, as they say, is obvious. I don't know of any other movies they starred in together, but I'm definitely going to look! Spencer Tracy shows his vesatility in this one, and his humor is one of my favorite things about him. All said and done, I'll be watching "Test Pilot" again and again and recommend it to old-movie fans. -
evanston_dad15 November 2016A 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+ -
robertmaxhutchings27 September 2005What a fantastic movie! This shows Clark Gable at his peak, just a year before Gone with the Wind, and Spencer Tracy near his beginning. With masterful directing on the part of Victor Fleming, cameras put you in the pilot's seat as you do barrel rolls and loops and dives. Gable and Tracy's beautiful friendship embraces their love of flying, and the two are inseparable, even after Myrna Loy enters the picture. Gable and Tracy act extremely well together, so it's surprising to me that this is their only movie together. Myrna Loy is a delight, as she is a departure from the eye candy role women traditionally played in those days. She actually acts, and she does it very well. And of course there is the immortal Lionel Barrymore, playing the same role of Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life, but without the greed. And, surprisingly, he offers very touching, and very accurate advice to Gable in the end. A great movie, a joy to watch again and again!
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cordaro941811 September 2008I list this under my 'Best' category for the simple fact that it's one of the best 'Buddy' pics of all time.
Tracy and Gable had already been on screen together, and both had already been award winners, but this one was just fun.
The story allows them to play off themselves with great range, and adding Myrna Loy only helps. The interaction is coy, innocent yet feisty, and lays a lot of groundwork for what 'buddy' comedy films still strive for.
Paced fairly well, with just a dash of drama, the film hits on all cylinders and is definitely a popcorn movie.
If you like this one, don't miss 'Boomtown' either. -
ccthemovieman-124 August 2006The first 40 minutes features some sharp, witty dialog, much of it by Myrna Loy as she puts down the arrogant Clark Gable.
Then the story just gets too silly and begins to bog down with a one-day romance that results in marriage, of course (only in Hollywood!). Then you get a predictable death scene and then Gable shown winning a big race. However, after the race he goes on a four-day drunk with no explanation of why he did it.
The film continues with this kind of stupidity and ovedoner melodramatics by both Gable and Loy, ruining what started out to be a very promising two-hour film. Instead, after awhile I just couldn't wait for this to end. Not recommended. -
dexter-1022 January 2001This 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.
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rmax3048239 October 2012A product of MGM in its heyday, written by Frank "Spig" Wead, about whom John Ford was to later make a movie ("The Wings of Eagles"), directed by Victor Fleming, a man's man who barked orders, played rough, and boozed it up. Manly Clark Gable is the test pilot who always wants to push the envelope, even though he met and married the devoted Myrna Loy overnight. Spencer Tracy is the sidekick, there to provide common sense, worry about Gable, and maintain Gable's airplanes.
With credits like that, it can't be all bad. Yet the characters are familiar. We've all seen movies before in which the hero is involved in some dangerous pursuit and the woman wants him to quit, settle down, and have babies in a normal home instead of all this running around with roughnecks -- and the drinking and swearing and the exhilaration of the adrenalin rush and all those tootsies hanging around and in general everybody carrying on like animals in a zoo. And why doesn't he get a haircut? She wants him to become a farmer or a shopkeeper or something, and start going to church, and she wants to push the perambulator along the sidewalks.
Now, usually -- are you following this? -- usually the sidekick is homelier than the hero, as is the case here, and frequently he's in love with the hero's pretty wife, devoted to her in fact, which is not the case here. It's not one of Tracy's better parts, hobbled as he is by a script that turns him into a sullen and disapproving partner before he becomes a sacrificial lamb who turns Gable's life around.
It's too talky. I enjoyed the scenes of flight, even the mock ups. I mean, how often do you get to see an experimental model of the B-17 on the screen? Or a Seversky P-35, a kind of forebear of the legendary P-47 Thunderbolt? The airplanes are real. On the other hand, you can usually tell when something dramatic is about to happen -- an engine fails, a stall takes place -- because suddenly we're watching obvious models.
There's a scene at a drunken party after one of the test pilots goes all the way in. Myrna Loy happens to mention the dead pilot's name, Benson, and Gable is suddenly enraged and shouts at her, "Who's Benson?" We get a similar exchange, more light hearted, in Howard Hawks' "Only Angels Have Wings" a year or two later. ("Who's Joe?") I'd like to think of it as a case of independent invention but Hawks was notorious for ripping stuff off from himself as well as others. -
blanche-216 June 2009I wish I could be as enthusiastic about "Test Pilot" as some of the other people on this board. It has a great, tried and true cast - Gable, Tracy, Myrna Loy, and Lionel Barrymore. Good flying sequences, and very suspenseful scenes at the end.
The first hour is lighter, and the dialogue is sharp - Gable is a flier who lands in the Kansas backyard of Loy. It's love at first sight, and they get married. Gable's best friend, Gunner, doesn't approve at first, but changes his mind later. Loy soon realizes that the life of a flier wife is one of worry and fear every time he goes up in a plane. But she loves him too much to leave.
It's a very predictable film, and seen in today's world, darn strange that Gunner just hangs around Gable and then Gable and Loy all the time and has no other life.
I usually try to watch movies in their world, in this case, 1938, but I found it difficult here. The acting is good - Gable and Tracy were a good team, Gable and Loy were a good team, and Lionel Barrymore gives a nice, underplayed performance. Tracy gives the strongest performance. The film became very melodramatic and the dialogue not as sharp as the first part of it. A case of too many cooks maybe. I just couldn't get into it. -
OldHatCinema6 July 2019The plot is pretty simple: An expert test pilot (played by Clark Gable) makes an emergency crash landing on a Kansas farm, and quickly finds himself falling in love with the farmer's daughter (played by Myrna Loy), much to the alarm of his best friend (played by Spencer Tracy), and his boss (played by Lionel Barrymore), and the usual drama ensues.
While it's certainly not the greatest movie I've ever seen, it's entertaining and amusing, and the acting is extremely enjoyable. All four principal actors inject their own individual humor into the story, while still being appropriately serious and sensitive at the right times.
Victor Fleming's direction is well-done and accomplished, as one would expect. Just a couple examples: he directed "Captains Courageous" the year before in 1937, and he would go on to direct "The Wizard of Oz" the very next year.
The well-written script is alternately dramatic and laugh-out-loud funny, and it's handled beautifully by its talented cast.
One flaw I happened to notice: Is it just me, or does it appear that someone in the prop department failed to provide Mr. Barrymore with a badly-needed wheelchair? -
TheLittleSongbird28 November 2019Victor 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 -
raketex12 August 2009Yes, it did seem a little odd that the screwball style dialogue and wittiness at the beginning of the movie changed tone a little into the movie, but Myrna Loy was wonderful!
She's what every guy would want - beautiful, upbeat, able to hold her own in a war of words and wills, witty, endearing, emotionally feminine, and a little flirty, all at the same time! If you liked her in the "Thin Man" movies, you'll love her here since it's more of the same - and yet a little more, since she isn't married at the beginning of the movie and that singleness adds a little to the flirtatiousness. What Myrna could do with those eyes of hers!
No wonder it is said that this was Myrna Loy's personal favorite film of hers - she has many shots of her that are just downright flattering! How did they used to describe it? "Fetching," I think it was.
Gable is the smooth-talking, brash egomaniac, able to do anything and charm anyone. Tracy I thought didn't have much of a role and was kind of pushed into the background.
Although the real flying footage was good, the many "walking" and "driving" scenes in front of obvious rear-projected background film really cheapened the look of the movie.
One of the most unintentionally funny lines, seen in today's light, is when Gable admonishes a somber Tracy during a post-victory drunken celebration. It went something like this, "You need to get gay. You might even shock yourself." -
planktonrules18 March 2006Like their movie TOO HOT TO HANDLE, this movie proves that Myrna Loy and Clark Gable made a great team (provided you, of course, don't count Parnell). Their chemistry, though less famous than William Powell and Myrna Loy, is great. The light and fun movies they did together are among my favorites of the 1930s. Now I am NOT saying they are the BEST, as there were many films that were more significant or realistic. But, sometimes I just want a film that is fun for fun's sake and doesn't necessarily have great depth. And you can't do a lot better than this film for just such a film. Wonderful acting, a cute plot and dialog and action combine to make a very enjoyable film that will most likely encourage you to look for more like it.
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thinker169128 February 2011Victor Fleming directed this film called " Test Pilot " and although it is remade several more times, each has it's own quirks. In this version we have Clark Gable, playing Jim a fun loving, joy seeking test pilot out to tame a plane and the sky-mistress. Spencer Tracy, plays Gunner he dutiful, loyal side kick who tries to play guardian angel over his reckless best friend. Myrna Loy is Ann a beautiful farm's daughter who becomes his girl and later his wife. With Lionel Barrymore playing Drake, his employer, the film dwells mostly on the personal relationship between the main characters and their ambitions. As such the movie is a soft but lofty tribute to foolhardy aviators and dwells painfully on the personal aspects between those who fly and those who expect the inevitable disastrous outcome of a failed aircraft. Though Tracy and Gable are a great team in other movies, they seem at odds in this one. Still, for an early war time propaganda film, it's acceptable, but hardly a classic for either star. ***
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blitzebill26 November 2017I've seen this film many times and never get tired of it.
One principal reason is for the flying sequences. 1938 and in a major Hollywood movie we're seeing some of the future of American aviation for WW II: The Seversky P-35, a potential template for the P-47, and an early B-17, and some distance shots of other aircraft like PBYs, etc.
The air races in Cleveland work decent too, and generally look good despite the sometimes crude special effects. Of course these races become a crucial part of the plot.
Another reason is the snappy dialog among the principals: Gable, Loy and Tracy as listed in the opening credits. A good love story and fine friendship between pilot and mechanic always makes for good film viewing. All three do some good honest acting.
And if that weren't enough, the cinematography and special shots of aircraft and flying are pretty spiffy too.
A recommended classic all around.
P.S. notice the inclusion of the typical superstitions of pilots and their crews. In this case, Gunner's chewing gum on the aircraft for good luck. -
Don't whine about it. Do something. Go to TCM's website and vote to have TEST PILOT released on DVD. There were only 1260 votes when I was there. Tell all your friends. Spread the word people. Vote for something that will actually make a difference. I didn't see the need to add a spoiler but I have to write 10 lines of text so; the scene at the ball park where Loy ridicules the opposing team's second baseman for being fooled on a hit and run play is priceless. The other reviewer who said this was out of character for Loy doesn't know baseball. This is what separates casual baseball fans from those who appreciate the game within the game. My guess was that Loy was not a casual fan and let it all hang out here. GO TO TCM AND VOTE FOR TEST PILOT.
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weezeralfalfa10 August 2008This is the second of 3 films featuring Gable and Tracy. The leading lady changed each time. This time, it was Myrna Loy as a flier-struck midwest farm girl who wins the heart of dashing Gable. The relationship between Tracy and Gable is basically the same in all 3 films. Tracy officially is the odd man out in a triangle. However, when Gable and the leading lady are feeling like enemies, Tracy takes over to console and advise the wife or girlfriend. In "San Francisco" and "Boomtown", they go back and forth as buddies or arch-enemies. In this film, they remain buddies, but Tracy and Myrna share the morose certainty that Gable will not live long in his role as test pilot for experimental aircraft. Gable, on the other hand, seems not to care whether he dies or is permanently maimed. Neither does he care sufficiently about the increasingly morose fears of Tracy and Marna to quit his dangerous job and stunt flying. Afterall, he periodically makes a bundle of cash(which he usually parties away)and becomes a local celebrity. Clearly, the '30s public liked films featuring both Gable and Tracy. But Tracy got fed up with playing second fiddle to Gable and "Boomtown" was their last pairing.
It is usually assumed that Gable's character is based on the autobiography of test pilot Jimmy Collins, also titled "Test Pilot", published just a few years earlier. However, a detailed discussion at the Turner Classic Movies web site considerably muddies this neat assumption. Seems MGM already had this project in mind and named in 1933. Thus, MGM did not credit the story as being based on Collins' life or book. Yet, one of the most harrowing scenes in the film, when the wings are torn off Gable's plane in a high speed dive, essentially duplicates what happened in Collins' fatal crash, just a couple of years before. Incidentally, Collins' grandson, also named Jimmy, recently had his grandfather's book reprinted. He himself was one of the top rock climbers in the world a few decades ago. Seems that daredeviling runs in the family.
Ironically, it was Tracy, not Gable, who eventually dies in a test run, apparently his only one.(Was this perhaps a confirmation of FDR's message "We have nothing to fear but fear itself"?) However, the death of his friend and the resulting hysteria of Myrna finally convinces Gable that the highs he gets from constantly trying to cheat death are too great a price for those close to him. He retires to a ground instructor role. In retrospect, we wonder why Myrna's character agreed to marry Gable's character, knowing first hand how dangerous flying was at this time. Incidentally, in his fatal crash, Collins knew he was exceeding the design specifications of his aircraft. Setting a new record meant more to him than cheating death again. Appropriately, what was left of his plane nosedived into a cemetery(for test pilots?).
Actually, this is my least favorite of the Gable-Tracy films, the others having more complicated plots. Dive bombing and crashing airplanes would become all too familiar in a few years. At this time, it was the test pilots of future warplanes who were the race car drivers of the sky. Hopefully, this film will be included in a future DVD Gable collection.