Life is dangerous for a test pilot. They are expected to take experimental aircraft into the air and push it to the limits, trying to find faults in the design to make flying safer for other pilots, all the while endangering their own lives. Trudy Cooper’s quote from The Right Stuff says it best: “I went back east to a reunion, and all my friends could talk about their husband’s work. How ‘dog-eat-dog’ and cutthroat it was on Madison Ave. Places like that. I wondered how they would’ve felt if every time their husband went in to make a deal, there was a one-in-four chance he wouldn’t come out of that meeting.” It takes a special kind of man to take on those odds day after day, but it also takes a special kind of woman to be married to just such a man.
These are women who have to live day-to-day knowing that their husband may not come home from work. The Right Stuff did a good job at depicting that anxiety those women felt while dealing with the cavalier attitude their husbands had, acting like this couldn’t happen to them. Some women are able to handle that level of anxiety and stress and go on being married to one of these pilots. Some end up getting divorced because they just cannot deal with it.
But we are not talking about 1983’s The Right Stuff. We are looking at a much older film: 1938’s Test Pilot. This film is all about the relationships surrounding test pilot Jim Lane (Clark Gable). The first of these relationships is with his best friend and mechanic, Gunner Morris (Spencer Tracy). These two have a rough but solid friendship built over a matter of years working together. Jim is reckless, pushing the limits of the crafts he is charged with testing, making him an ideal pilot for this kind of work. One day one of his aircraft springs a leak mid-flight, forcing him to land on a Kansas farm in the middle of nowhere. While he is awaiting the arrival of Gunner and a repair team, he meets Ann “Thursday” Barton (Myrna Loy), a farmer’s daughter who is almost immediately infatuated with him. Jim is likewise attracted to her, but when Gunner arrives, his attention is diverted back to him and the plane. Determined to get his attention again, Ann proposes to a local man who accepts. The move works, and after Jim flies away, he soon returns to her, and the two get married.
But not all is rosy in their marriage. When the couple return home Jim clashes with his boss, Drake (Lionel Barrymore) and is fired. From there he picks up work with another outfit, flying a very experimental aircraft in a race. Ann, realizing just how dangerous her husband’s work actually is, promises Gunner that she will stick to her man, no matter what. But that promise is tested almost immediately when Jim’s plane catches fire and nearly crashes. On top of that, Benson (Louis Jean Heydt), a fellow competitor whom Drake sent in Jim’s place, loses control of his own aircraft and crashes, leaving behind a wife and several kids. The crash devastates Jim and he gives half of his winnings to the widow, then drinks away the remaining half. In less than a week he is broke again. To make up for spending all their money, he takes work on increasingly more dangerous flights for big payouts. But Ann is losing her battle to stay on the ground waiting for the inevitable day where he doesn’t make it back home.
Watching the flying sequences, it is no surprise to learn that renowned movie stunt pilot Paul Mantz was involved in these moments. There are some truly spectacular airplane shots that feel like something Howard Hawks would have directed. Hawks is credited as contributing to the script for this but the actual director was Victor Fleming, just one year prior to his helming Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. While the story itself isn’t particularly grandiose, the scope of the film is, presenting some of the best flying footage ever seen on screen. This is juxtaposed with some obvious rear projection but that is a sign of the times in which this was made. This is a film from the 1930s after all and not Top Gun: Maverick with real actors riding in jets just to sell the realism.
But amazing footage can only take a film so far. That was one of the weaknesses of Wingsthat kept it from being a truly great film. To combat this, three of the hottest actors in Hollywood were cast to star in this film. Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy were all hot commodities at the time and their combined star power and charisma elevate this story and make us like their characters. It was reported that Gable and Tracy did not get along on set but that doesn’t bleed through in the performances. Myrna Loy could have coasted on the good will she was getting playing Nora Charles in the Thin Man series but she was far too good an actress to do that. The only real weak part of her role is in the writing. At no point did I find it believable that she grew up on a farm; she adapts too easily and quickly to the city life.
The dangers of flying, especially this early into the technology, was not a new thing. We saw examples of it in Wings as well as in Love Affair and China Clipper with Humphrey Bogart. There are countless examples out there that showcase this concept. But few of these movies really tackle the wife back home worrying about her husband. This, and the erosion of their relationship, are big selling point for this movie. Jim refers to the sky as a lady in blue, calling to him. That lady may eventually lead to his downfall and he knows it. But Ann cannot bring herself to force him to stay grounded, wanting to be up in the air and resenting her for not being able to do so. Gable embodies this addiction as realistically as any addict drawn to their drug of choice. And like any addict, it will take a lot of persuasion to convince him to put away his blue mistress, persuasion he will have to find on his own.
Academy Award Nominations:
Outstanding Production: Louis D. Lighton
Best Writing - Original Story: Frank Wead
Best Film Editing: Tom Held
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Release Date: April 22, 1938
Running Time: 118 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, and Lionel Barrymore
Directed By: Victor Fleming
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