... the script crashes and burns. Gable plays a test pilot who crash lands in Myrna Loy's corn field. A whirlwind courtship ensues and the couple flies back from whence Gable came, except they are married. Gable loses his job because of his delay, but soon picks up another one as test pilot. When one of Gable's friends dies in an aerial contest - the audience has met the entire family right before the contest so you KNOW it is curtains for this guy - suddenly Myrna Loy realizes the danger of her husband's profession. Really? He did crash land in your cornfield. The only reason that didn't kill him is your cornfield was not a high rise! So why am I giving this six out of ten? Well there are some cute scenes, such as when Gable returns with his new wife and realizes that she needs a night gown for the wedding night. Loy could have done this shopping herself, but it did make for a cute scene with a bewildered Gable lost in the clutches of the lingerie department of a local store. Much more romantic than 80 years later with strangers hooking up on Tinder like they are ordering steel belted radials and all of the romance of buying tires to boot.
Then there is the acting. Loy is sharp, witty and at the same time touching and unaffected. Gable is masculine, gruff but vulnerable, a sort of trial run for Rhett Butler, and with the same director as in "Gone with the Wind" too. As for Spencer Tracy, as Gable's mechanic and buddy I can't say it was a bad performance he gave, but it was the oddest one I've ever seen after Tracy left Fox and came to MGM. He plays it like he is Harpo Marx, practically mute for the entire movie. In fact that is exactly what it is like - as though Harpo Marx is wearing a Spencer Tracy suit.
Victor Fleming directed this one, and Howard Hawks and Spig Wead were two of the four writers. Perhaps this one could have been more tightly delivered if Hawks had been the director.
I'd mildly recommend this, but if you get through it, scratch your head, and say "What exactly was the point of this?" all I can say is you are not alone.
Then there is the acting. Loy is sharp, witty and at the same time touching and unaffected. Gable is masculine, gruff but vulnerable, a sort of trial run for Rhett Butler, and with the same director as in "Gone with the Wind" too. As for Spencer Tracy, as Gable's mechanic and buddy I can't say it was a bad performance he gave, but it was the oddest one I've ever seen after Tracy left Fox and came to MGM. He plays it like he is Harpo Marx, practically mute for the entire movie. In fact that is exactly what it is like - as though Harpo Marx is wearing a Spencer Tracy suit.
Victor Fleming directed this one, and Howard Hawks and Spig Wead were two of the four writers. Perhaps this one could have been more tightly delivered if Hawks had been the director.
I'd mildly recommend this, but if you get through it, scratch your head, and say "What exactly was the point of this?" all I can say is you are not alone.