This is great example of hagiography. Spencer Tracy makes a great Thomas Alva Edison and the story picks up from YOUNG TOM EDISON with him just this side of his dotage eating apple pie as in the earlier film and about to be feted for nearly sixty years of inventing new technology in the 20th Century. As he is about to be introduced we see him fondly recall his heyday as a young inventor strolling the streets of New York in search of a position.
He finds there is always a position to be had for a man who can improve machinery. From there one thing leads to another new invention and before we know it we're with the Wizard of Menlo Park as he works on his latest project the electric light. This is all very interesting as we watch Edison juggle debts for requisitioned materials and a wife wanting to know when he is coming home as she is now with child. He assembles a very faithful team albeit Lewis Latimer is conspicuously absent as is a certain Nikola Tesla who did alright with alternating current. Fights over patent rights would have made for interesting highlights in suspense, but this version which continues extending the Horatio Alger story line is nonetheless inspiring and fit fodder for family viewing.
Reading the reviewers fleshed out a lot about Thomas Edison that I did not know, but I was never credulous enough to think that The Wizard was spotless or without sin. This version of Edison's life is classic Golden Age of Hollywood, and besides, at this time our great inventor enjoyed the status of a National Hero something no one would dispute then or now. Probably the time is right for a more full bodied character presentation of this giant of innovation, but who can say that simply his trials with his various amazing inventions is not enough entertainment.
The trial to defend establishing a grid for Public Lighting is exciting in its own right. The struggle to balance the energy transfer between two dynamos is also hair-raising and thrilling and makes for a great parting comment as the venerable old inventor accepts his award. This was a great vehicle to showcase the best of what Edison was about and I think watching Spencer Tracy march through the mists of time as the innovations and inventions roll by in montage makes you believe that we are moving onward and upward as the truth of technological progress marches on.
On a personal note, I really would have liked to have seen Steve McQueen play the Wizard from Menlo Park, as his love of machines is well documented and observable in his films. There is plenty of room in the genre of Inventors for many more stories that highlight people attempting to improve life by creating new improvements and this would be a welcome relief from films about witty hit men and whores with hearts of gold. Perhaps next time there is an Edison biopic we'll see Latimer and Tesla in the mix as fully rounded characters and find out what Edison did to that elephant Topsy. We might also find out more about why he would not accept his Nobel Prize. A more fully rendered human Edison might win admiration for an entirely new age.
He finds there is always a position to be had for a man who can improve machinery. From there one thing leads to another new invention and before we know it we're with the Wizard of Menlo Park as he works on his latest project the electric light. This is all very interesting as we watch Edison juggle debts for requisitioned materials and a wife wanting to know when he is coming home as she is now with child. He assembles a very faithful team albeit Lewis Latimer is conspicuously absent as is a certain Nikola Tesla who did alright with alternating current. Fights over patent rights would have made for interesting highlights in suspense, but this version which continues extending the Horatio Alger story line is nonetheless inspiring and fit fodder for family viewing.
Reading the reviewers fleshed out a lot about Thomas Edison that I did not know, but I was never credulous enough to think that The Wizard was spotless or without sin. This version of Edison's life is classic Golden Age of Hollywood, and besides, at this time our great inventor enjoyed the status of a National Hero something no one would dispute then or now. Probably the time is right for a more full bodied character presentation of this giant of innovation, but who can say that simply his trials with his various amazing inventions is not enough entertainment.
The trial to defend establishing a grid for Public Lighting is exciting in its own right. The struggle to balance the energy transfer between two dynamos is also hair-raising and thrilling and makes for a great parting comment as the venerable old inventor accepts his award. This was a great vehicle to showcase the best of what Edison was about and I think watching Spencer Tracy march through the mists of time as the innovations and inventions roll by in montage makes you believe that we are moving onward and upward as the truth of technological progress marches on.
On a personal note, I really would have liked to have seen Steve McQueen play the Wizard from Menlo Park, as his love of machines is well documented and observable in his films. There is plenty of room in the genre of Inventors for many more stories that highlight people attempting to improve life by creating new improvements and this would be a welcome relief from films about witty hit men and whores with hearts of gold. Perhaps next time there is an Edison biopic we'll see Latimer and Tesla in the mix as fully rounded characters and find out what Edison did to that elephant Topsy. We might also find out more about why he would not accept his Nobel Prize. A more fully rendered human Edison might win admiration for an entirely new age.