Test Pilot (1938)
Directed by Victor Fleming

Plot Summary: Jim is a test pilot. His wife Ann and best friend Gunner try their best to keep him sober, but he crashes a plane and Gunner is killed.

I expected a lot more from this movie considering its cast. With Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy, I thought there would at LEAST be good acting. The plot was interesting but poorly executed. Gable's character is a test pilot for the army, and tends to enjoy the "high life." Loy, his wife, is often left anxious over his safety and doubtful of their love. Tracy has probably the best performance of the trio as the friend and sometimes co-pilot of Gable. However, for the bulk of the movie, all Tracy has to do is be depressed. His character had the potential to be very interesting; there seemed to be a lot of internal conflict within him that was poorly projected upon the screen. Loy and Gable are often excessively over-dramatic. It becomes nauseating after a while, especially with such contrived and ridiculous dialogue. The only entertaining interaction between Gable and Loy was at the beginning, when they were slyly flirtatious and coy with each other.

This 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 only if one is even mildly interested in aircraft lore.

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