What a waste of my time!!!

People are voting emotionally.

one of my absolute favorites!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

. . . you would think that being buried alive would be the least of a TEST PILOT's concerns WHILE he's airborne. Yet, whether Spencer Tracy was in the air (as in this flick), on land (during the SAN FRANCISCO earthquake), or at sea (think CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS), poor Spence was seen as being as expendable as an Indian Pony in a John Wayne flick by the MGM film studio owning his contract in the 1930s. MGM's disclaimer at the beginning of TEST PILOT states that anything remotely resembling an actual airplane during this film is a figment of viewers' imaginations. Just as MGM would refuse to "give away" the Military "Secret" behind "Sherman's Neckties" the following year in its GONE WITH THE WIND debacle, this studio believed that Japanese Plotter Tojo could be lured into Sneak Attacking America IF the Roaring Lion folks ran a scroll stating that ALL of TEST PILOT's aerial action was just so much Hollywood trickery and that the U.S. Military had NO warplanes at its disposal. (Tojo, of course, swallowed MGM's bait hook, line, and Pacific Fleet sinker, making TEST PILOT the deadliest Real Life Disaster in Tinseltown History.)

A 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.

Victor 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. ***

I 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.