Test Pilot (Found!)

Test Pilot is a story where men put their lives at risk for the sake of aviation and women find that irresistible.  Clark Gable plays Jim, the cocky hotshot test pilot who tries to moonlight as a lady’s man.  Spencer Tracy is his right hand mechanic, Gunner, who spends most of his time keeping Jim on track with work and prying him away from the ladies.  When one of Jim’s test flights has mechanical trouble, he makes an emergency landing in a Kansas field and meets Ann, played by Myrna Loy.

A hunky pilot lands right in front of a little farmer’s daughter dreaming of more?  We know where this is going, but the writers decide to stretch this act out a bit.  See, Ann shouldn’t come off as easy and besides, she’s got herself a dopey farmer boyfriend.  She’ll just flirt with Jim for a while, have him take her out on the town to pick up Gunner (he’s got to get out there and fix the plane) and lead him on before the intro to farmer boyfriend.  Gunner sees the chemistry brewing when he arrives and being the sensible one, warns Ann against running off with Jim.  It seems she’s made the sensible choice when Jim starts his flight back to New York, but Jim is a loose cannon and turns around to whisk his sweet farm girl away.  They make a pit stop in Indianapolis to get married.

So now their married and can live happily ever after right?  Uh, no.  See, Jim and Gunner are roommates with no room, no money and Jim has a plane race on Thursday he has to be at or he’s fired.  Nothing like a new bride watching her hubby haggle for an apartment to share with his mechanic and then watching him in a death defying race.  Once Ann sees the dangers in Jim’s job she realizes the mistake she’s made.  Yes, we’re calling it a mistake here.  Who runs off their daddy’s farm to marry a man they’ve known for a day?  Dumb little girls who realize their husband could crash and die at work anytime, that’s who.  Have a nice honeymoon.

Though Jim wins, the race is a traumatising event for both Jim and Ann.  Now Ann realizes she could become a widow at anytime and is just waiting for Jim to die so she can be free.  How romantic.  And Jim goes on a long binge, all the way out to Chicago and loses all his winnings.  So much for providing for the new Mrs.

I realize how cynical I’m being about this film, I was siding with Gunner on everything.  He’s the one who’s got half a brain, yet no one listens to him until they realize what a mess they’ve stepped in.  Jim and Ann are lucky to have a guy like Gunner with them, he’s not going to sugar coat the rash things they’ve done, but he’ll stick by them until the end.

Sure, the plot is a little eye-rolling, but the plane scenes are fun and exciting.  Their edited so well that just a few seconds of plane footage against another few seconds can really put a story together.  The plane race scene is fast paced and the first time Ann can really see the dangers Jim faces.

To any classic film enthusiast, a film starring Clark Gable, Mirna Loy and Spencer Tracy is pure gold, no matter the air-headed plot.  It really is an enjoyable film because of these three great actors.  The fact that this film is hard to find makes it even more valuable.  Just keep checking TCM now and then, it was on last week it has to come back sometime.

“Just listen, I got so many words.”

Missing from 1938

Out of the ten nominated films from 1938, three cannot be found at the moment:  Test Pilot, Four Daughters and The Citadel.  I must say, I’m especially upset at not finding Test Pilot, which stars Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy.  These three actors have become new favorites of mine over the course of this project, especially Tracy.  If anyone has any leads on any of the the missing film, I’d consider it a very welcomed late holiday gift.

Arrowsmith

Here is John Ford’s very first Oscar nominated film.  Let’s just say he could only go up from here.

Arrowsmith is based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis about a young medical research scientist with so much potential.  All Martin Arrowsmith’s (Ronald Colman) life seems to be in preparation to be a great scientist.  He’s told by his professor and mentor that he could do great things in the world of research, but Martin meets a young nurse, Leora (Helen Hayes) and marries.  A research scientists salary won’t support them, so they move to her hometown in South Dakota and Martin becomes the town’s doctor.

Throughout the film, the men of science who work in laboratories trying to find cures for diseases look down on private doctors.  They write them off as pill distributors, only helping one person at a time.  These lab rats seem to thrive on the idea that though their work may be slow and tedious, their rewards will be much greater in the end.  It seems that Martin is selling out.

Martin quickly finds out that he’s not very good at practicing medicine.  It’s not so much that he’s a bad doctor, but that he is not motivated by running house to house distributing pills.  When a disease breaks out among the town’s cattle, Martin steps into the case, just for fun.  He ends up turning his kitchen into a lab and creating a serum to cure the infected cattle.  We easily see that he’s more invigorated by creating medicine rather than delivering babies or pulling children’s loose teeth.

Word soon gets around about Martin, the cow doctor, and when Leora loses their baby they decide to move back to New York, where Martin will work under his old professor again.  His research starts slow at first and of course once he’s a little discouraged he makes a great discovery.  Along this time there’s also an outbreak of plague, which propels the Arrowsmiths to go to the West Indies to see if his newly discovered medicine can help.

All that just seems like perfect timing, don’t it?  But don’t worry, the travels prove to be tragic and Myrna Loy shows up as a beautiful Hollywood headliner in the last quarter who doesn’t really have much other purpose in the film.  Hard to believe this trite plot line has been reused for over eighty years now.

Honestly, this seems like one of the first boring biographical films made just for an Oscar buzz.  It’s not biographical, but it has that sort of feel, building Arrowsmith up to some hero with all sorts of drama around him.  I don’t know how well the film follows the novel, (perhaps Loy’s character has more time and purpose) but I think you’d get much more satisfaction out of any novel than this film.

“That’s no compliment, it’s a scientific fact.”

 

The Thin Man

Mystery, murder, laughs and love.  The Thin Man has it all and a dog to top it off.

When inventor Mr. Wynant hears the good news that his daughter, Dorothy (Maureen O’Sullivan) is getting married, he goes to fetch the savings bonds he’s been saving for her, only to find them missing.  After a fruitless search and a fight with his wife, she is found dead and he goes missing.  Poor Dorothy is worried sick about her father and asks an old friend of her family’s Nick Charles (William Powell) a former detective to help look for him.

Now, Nick has been out of the detective game for a few years and he’s not willing to just go barreling into a murder case.  It’s really his wife, Nora (Myrna Loy) who convinces him to get involved with the case.  Her reason?  It’s all terribly exciting!  Of course, when things get dangerous she has her second thoughts, but Nick can’t back out.  That would be chicken.

Nick is an interesting fellow.  He’s cocky, smart and is usually three steps ahead of everyone, but when he isn’t his luck and quick wits make him seem like it was all part of the plan.  It’s always kinda fun how that just turns out.  His wife, Nora shares the same type of charm.  She’s always supportive, but often with a thin layer of sarcasm and can worry about her husband in dangerous situations.  Let’s not forget the baby in the family; the couple has a cute little dog, Asta, who accompanies Nick and even helps uncover some big clues.

The film feels like comedy noir.  There’s a good mix of crime, comedy, drama and mystery that keeps fresh and exciting until the end.  The great amount of comedy keeps the whole film light, but not flimsy.  And of course, Powell and Loy make a great duo any day as they did in many, many films.

I recommend this film to anyone who wants to see what a good comedy/mystery can be.  Today, this genre is one that isn’t taken seriously.  Ace Ventura could fit in this category.  And we’ve all heard of rounding up all the suspects for dinner to see who’s guilty, this film that scene best.

“That’s a girl with hair on her chest.”

The Great Zeigfeld

Step right up ladies and gentlemen and see The Great Zeigfeld, the story of the life and work of the extravagant stage producer, Florenz Ziegfeld (William Powell).  Witness as he rises from a carnie at the world’s fair, peddling Sandow the strong man, to producing some of the biggest hits on Broadway and “glorifying the American girl.”  Be amazed as he finds new fortunes and love just to lose them, nearly to rock bottom and then regain anew by just being a fast talker.  The film is filled with reenactments of his greatest stage moments, some so fantastic it’s almost too much to capture on film.

Whew, don’t want to get carried away with that carnie voice.  But frankly, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this film.  The way a Zeigfeld biography is intertwined with pieces of recreated stage performances is wonderful.   I wouldn’t classify this film as a musical, since the musical numbers are separate from the story.  The numbers are in here to show Zeigfeld’s work (you wouldn’t make a Van Gogh biography without showing a couple paintings right?) and what magnificent works he created!

One particularly amazing stage performance recreated for the screen is the number “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody.”  The whole thing is on a rotating stage, with a gigantic silk curtain slowly rising as it turns to reveal more and more actors singing on the spiraling stairs.  Director Robert Z. Leonard wanted to make the whole scene one continuous long shot, like you would see it sitting in a live theater, but back then cameras could only physically hold so much film.  So Leonard created the illusion of one long shot, by zooming in on a key singer at the end of the reel and panning back out to start the new reel without the feel of a cut.  Hitchcock later used this technique in Rope.

I’ll admit, I had this sitting, in its little Netflix envelope on the table for almost a week because three hours in 1936 just sounded like a drag.  How wrong could I have been?  There’s a reason this won Best Picture.  William Powell and Myrna Loy are always worth watching and the story of Zeigfeld is entertaining to the end.  Luise Rainer deservingly won Best Actress and her famous telephone scene is wonderful.  If you enjoy the theater, it’s brought to the screen magnificently.  People must’ve gone crazy seeing some of the huge stage scenes back in ’36.  I was amazed just sitting on my couch seventy-four years later.  If you pick just one film from 1936, make it The Great Zeigfeld.