An action-packed drama with a touch of romance, Test Pilot was one of Gable's biggest box office hits. Myrna Loy stated it was the favorite of all of her films...yes including The Thin Man series!

Gable 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.

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Reviews

Modern Screen Magazine, July 1938:

In a month full of mediocre films, Metro really startled Hollywood preview-goers with one of the year's fastest and most exciting screen dramas--of those rare pictures which actually lives up to their advance notices. Test Pilot has everything: a swell story, a splendid cast, and powerful air stuff which furnishes some of the most breathtaking moments the screen has ever offered.

Clark Gable plays an aerial daredevil whose business is risking his neck trying out new ships. Boy meets girl when Gable is forced down in a Kansas wheat field, not more than fifty paces from Myrna Loy. They marry, much to the disgust of Spencer Tracy, Gable's mechanic, and Lionel Barrymore, his boss. But Myrna wins them over and, with Gable and Tracy, makes Test Pilot the most virile and--potentially--the most profitable picture of the year.

Gable and Tracy are excellent in their he-man roles, and Myrna Loy is at her charming best. In the supporting cast, Lionel Barrymore deserves praise, as do Tod Pearson, Marjorie Main, Gloria Holden and Louis Jean Heydt. Best scene is the terrific moment when a plane, in a power dive, loses both wings, and the pilot calmly rips off the instrument board, for his records, before he bails out. Victor Fleming directed.

Photoplay, September 1938:

Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy and Lionel Barrymore (try and top that combination!)  in the most thrilling picture of the month. Gable is a pilot addicted to stunts and the bottle; Myrna is his wife; Spencer, his sacrificial pal. The shrieking whine of the motors will hum in your ears for a long time, but don’t even consider missing this.

Quote-able Gable

          "Hello Gunner oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Look what I rescued!" first lines

"Girls are always quarreling. Girls don't get on good for some reason!"

"I'm licked, see, I'm licked! I couldn't move this thing with a ferry!"

"Say, I'm just in the mood for a bull, sister. You go get him; I'm liable to pick him up and throw him right back in your lap!"

"Do all the girls around here look like you this early in the morning? Every girl I've ever seen this early..."

"She's crazy, I broke all the records too! I entered high school a sophomore and came out a freshman!"

"Well if that isn't going out of your way to get a laugh, I ask you!"

"And I rated you the best girl I ever saw! It's rotten to be disappointed."

"What do you want me to do--say I love you?"

"It's fun asking you for dough--I'm enjoying this, aren't you?"

"The sky looks sweet and wears a pretty blue dress, doesn't she? Yeah well don't kid yourself.
She lives up there, she invites you up there and when she gets you up there, she knocks you down!"

"What do you want to hate me for, baby?"

"I'm drinking to your mother, I'm drinking to your father and I'm drinking to the whole corn-fed state of Kansas!"

"Listen, I haven't started yet. I'll go back up there; I'm going back up there and paying the sky back for what she did for me today!  I'll pay her back--I'll wring her neck!"

"A man spends his whole life getting somewhere and where does he end up? Nowhere, just where he started." last lines

Behind the Scenes

Starlet Virginia Grey has a small part at the beginning as one of Jim's dates. She and Gable eventually became romantically involved in the mid-1940's.

Gable's technical advisor, Paul Mantz, was a onetime copilot and navigator for Amelia Earhart.

Loy recalled that Gable was intimidated by the drunken "sky wears a pretty blue dress" speech and had her rehearse with him over and over. He was afraid of appearing too sensitive. In the end he did it perfect in one take.