Sadly Over-hyped

One of my all time favorites.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

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. ***

This 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.

The 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.

The 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.