A Guy Named Joe / Test Pilot

A GUY NAMED JOE, 1943, Warner Bros., 120 min. Director Victor Fleming brings his uniquely Hollywoodized, but no less transcendental, cosmology to bear in this poignant fantasy of WWII fighter pilot Spencer Tracy returning from Heaven as a ghost to look after younger pilot Van Johnson. The catch is Johnson has begun a tentative romance with Tracy’s grieving girlfriend Irene Dunne. Co-starring Ward Bond, James Gleason, Lionel Barrymore, Esther Williams. Remade by Steven Spielberg in 1989 as ALWAYS.

TEST PILOT, 1938, Warner Bros.,118 min. Clark Gable is a daredevil test pilot trying out dangerous new aircraft, Spencer Tracy is Gable’s mechanic best friend and Myrna Loy is the woman in their lives in this crowd-pleasing and fiery romantic comedy-drama. With another star-studded MGM cast that includes Lionel Barrymore, Marjorie Main and Gloria Holden.