Variables from loadMovie?

Okay. I got loadMovie to work in a movie called “testShell” and it loads a movie named “testvid.swf” with a variable “testVar” in it. testvid.swf is loaded into a movieclip named “testclip”. How can I get testVar to register in testShell? If I reference it as “_root.testclip.testVar”, it doesn’t work.