Movie of the Week: Test Pilot (1938)

This week, it’s Clark Gable as a fearless test pilot, Myrna Loy as the woman he loves and Spencer Tracy as his best buddy in Test Pilot (1938).

Clark is Jim Lane, a boozing, womanizing army test pilot who walks to the beat of his own drummer. On one trip, his plane starts leaking gas and he lands on the field of a Kansas farm, where Ann Barton (Loy) lives with her parents. Their sparring turns to mutual attraction soon after and by the time Jim’s best friend and mechanic, Gunner Morris (Tracy) arrives to help fix the plane, they are in love. When Jim brings the plane home to New York, he has Ann in tow, as his new wife. Jim has a lot of adjustments to do to get used to being a married man and Gunner is jealous as it has always just been the two of them and now he is the third wheel.
Although Ann was at first thrilled at her husband’s exciting profession, she learns quickly how dangerous it is. She hides her true feelings from Jim and puts on a happy face with each new mission he takes on. Gunner, who has grown to admire Ann, grows more and more bitter as he watches Ann suffer behind Jim’s back.

This film is most definitely my third favorite Gable film (I’ll let you guess the other two). It is most definitely the film you would show someone who asks, “Just why exactly was Clark Gable so popular in the 1930’s?” This film has all the Gable elements–action and adventure, romance, a bro-mance, he gets all the best lines and is rather roguish and full of himself but you love him anyway.

He takes unnecessary risks in the sky, floats from woman to woman, goes on drinking binges for days and spends all his money to the last dime. But ain’t he just so handsome?

The chemistry between Clark and Myrna is peak here. In her autobiography, she cited Test Pilot as the favorite of all of her films…yes even over the Thin Man series! From the moment he lands on her farm, they are smitten and it is adorable.

Myrna shows some dramatic chops here and is excellent in a scene after Clark crashes and she feared him for dead. “Why won’t you just die already and leave me alone?” she wails, so exhausted from constantly worrying about him.

Spencer Tracy is here, and much like in San Francisco, he is the little angel on Clark’s shoulder, trying to be his conscience and make him do the right thing. Not always successfully, of course.

He is too good for his part. They really could have gotten a lesser actor to play his role and probably saved some money and Spencer the sake of being Clark’s sidekick again. Not that Spencer is bad–no,no, he is quite good. But the role demands little of him other than pacing around with an ugly look on his face, chastising Clark yet kissing his ass at the same time, all the while worried sick about Myrna and the “three roads” that their lives are all on. His character seems perfectly fine living in the extra bedroom of Clark and Myrna’s apartment, worrying about their marriage and being Clark’s sidekick. He doesn’t seem to have any life of his own.

I do enjoy the scene though where he tells Clark on his first night with his new wife that perhaps he should go buy her a nightgown—something Clark hadn’t considered.

Longtime friend Lionel Barrymore is Clark’s crusty old boss ( a role Lionel often played)

And let’s not forget Marjorie Main as the icy landlady whom Clark quickly thaws (naturally).

Test Pilot is one of the few Gable films nominated for Best Picture, although it didn’t take home the trophy.

Nutshell review is here

Full review is here

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