I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The Age of Commercialism

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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 noticed this movie surfing around on TV and caught a glimpse of racing planes. My mom is from this era, married a test pilot(just after the war), who drank. So I asked her to watch it with me because she used to work for TWA in 1945 running weather data to the pilots. Amazingly neither of us had seen it before. We had a great time because this film has great acting (and lots of fast planes). It's no wonder they grabbed Clark for Gone With The Wind right after this film. He nails all his demanding scenes.very well. Their are moments of pure psychology in this one just like a lot of them from this period imo. Myrna Loy is pleasantly reserved and unpretentious and showed a wide range of acting. The script is quite clever, so it must of been easier for the actors to really act, and it shows. It's not hard to get absorbed in these characters. Spencer too, he's a pretty cool cookie here. During an exciting plane race, my mom asked how they filmed some of the plane stunts! I have no idea :-) very exciting indeed. Have fun.

I 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.

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?