Test Pilot (1938)

Directed by Victor Fleming. Starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Marjorie Main, Samuel S. Hinds, Gloria Holden, Ted Pearson, Louis Jean Heydt.

Devil-may-care test pilot Gable is attempting a coast-to-coast speed record when his plane goes down onto a Kansas field where he meets and falls for farmer’s daughter Loy. After the two get hitched, though, the bloom of the romance fades for her as she realizes that his job will always be his “first love,” and it’s a risky job at that, one likely to leave her a young widow someday. Solid if not quite soaring romantic drama is overgenerous in its theatrical character studies and tropes, but the star power (including Tracy and Barrymore in supporting roles) pay off in terms of their general likability and empathetic shortcuts. Rumbling sound mixing aside, the flying scenes can’t match the best early-Hollywood aviation pictures—the models are too easily spotted—but at least the story back on Earth isn’t as trite and hokey as they tended to be. Co-scripted by Howard Hawks, who knew a thing or two about making aviation pictures; original story by Frank “Spig” Wead, a former flyer paralyzed by a spinal injury over a decade prior.

70/100