CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Adeel Hail
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Deanna
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
romanorum1
The caption quote is what visitors to the Edison National Historic Site in New Jersey are told. For there is no question that Thomas Alva Edison, "The Wizard of Menlo Park," was America's greatest inventor. His accomplishment of 1150 patents is truly astonishing when one takes into account the times when he lived. Most of his life was spent in the 19th century.Movie makers have always had an attraction for biographies. To name just a few of the many featured in motion pictures: Alexander the Great, Marco Polo, Columbus, Marie Antoinette, Kit Carson, Abraham Lincoln, Brigham Young, Louis Pasteur, Geronimo, Knute Rockne, Hank Williams, John F. Kennedy. Of course it is difficult to cram a person's life into a two or even three-hour movie. Then again, the movies, for various reasons, are not too accurate with the facts. With "Edison the Man" we at least have an enjoyable representation that focuses much on Edison's earlier inventions. We still miss much, like the early death of Mrs. Edison (Mary Stilwell) at age 29, and Edison's second marriage two years later to Mina Miller. The real Edison had three children with the first marriage, and three with the second. But as the movie ends in 1882, the first Mrs. Edison was still alive. Then again, the real purpose of the movie is to make drama with the earlier inventions.The biography begins in 1929 when Thomas A. Edison was honored at a banquet for the Jubilee of light (1879-1929). He reflects on his long life – already exceeding 80 years – by thinking back to 1869, when relatively unknown at age 22 he had improved the stock market ticker. From his success he received $40,000 from General Powell (the actual amount was $10,000). With the payment Edison constructed his famous laboratories at Menlo Park, NJ. After much sweat he and his loyal associates invented the Quadruplex telegraph, the phonograph (1877), the electric light bulb (1879), and many others. It was the phonograph, the talking machine, which really brought the inventor into the public eye. The singular great accomplishment was the electric light bulb, along with the dynamo and electrification of Pearl St. in Manhattan on 4 September 1882. These achievements came after he found that one of his pseudo-supporters (Taggart) had a vested interest in the gaslight business. But Edison was determined to get the job done in the allotted six months. From time immemorial man had needed to use burning flames to produce light. Electric power remains safer (and more comfortable in the summer).To keep the movie within a reasonable time length (Edison's life from 1869 to 1882), some of the major inventions of the later 19th and early 20th centuries are quickly listed at movie's end. They include the fluoroscope (X-ray machine), ediphone (dictating machine), cement kiln, mimeograph, and motion pictures (kinetoscope, 1891). The last listing, "talking pictures," is dubious at best as Edison was long deaf and preferred silent movies to talkies. Also, Spencer Tracy makes the great man to be more pleasant than he really was. For the real Edison was motivated by commercial success as much as his desire to improve man's lot.Spencer Tracy was such a marvelous actor that he would study about those he portrayed, especially Thomas A. Edison. He even visited his famous New Jersey Laboratories. The actor had already won the Academy Award in 1938 for his portrayal of Father Flanagan of Boys Town. Perhaps his best representation of Edison is demonstrating the man's personal drive to succeed in all of his endeavors, to push harder and harder, to combine inspiration (1%) with perspiration (99%). Look at his despair when he cannot keep up with the bills, then later his weary joy when Pearl Street lights up. Worth seeing.
vincentlynch-moonoi
I had to chuckle when I read a couple of the other reviews here for the mentioning of Nikola Tesla. I remember as a teenager, my best friend idolized Tesla and was so negative about Edison. And, although MGM hired advisers from The Edison Institute and Thomas A. Edison, Inc. (of course, they may have had a perspective about Edison that was just a bit prejudiced in his favor), this movie does give unrealistic homage to Edison. But, that was exactly the intent of the film. To portray an American hero whose many inventions and business efforts helped transform America. It's as accurate as the typical movie bio-pic of the era, but those of us who live today cannot quite imagine how Edison and his inventions captured the American spirit.The first amazing thing about this film is in the opening and closing scenes where Tracy (with makeup) resembles the elderly Edison to an extent that is amazing.Tracy had a remarkable range, and this picture reminds me of his performance in the two Boys Town movies, while during the same time period he played quite different roles in "Northwest Passage" and "Boom Town". I can't think of an actor of that era (or this) who was more perfect for the role of Edison.Rita Johnson is good here as Edison's wife. A tragedy led to the virtual end of her career. Charles Coburn has an all too short role as an investor, and Gene Lockhart is very good as one of Edison's competitors. A number of fine character actors portray Edison's assistants, including Felix Bressart and Henry Travers.The plot of the story simply follows some of Edison's inventions, with the most attention being given to his light bulb. The story is particularly inaccurate in terms of his family life -- he was married twice (only once in the movie) and had quite a few more children than the movie depicted. But the topic of the movie is Edison, the hero. And in that it accomplishes its goals.Highly recommended, and it's certainly found a place on my DVD shelf.
bkoganbing
If anyone is looking for a factual account of the life of Thomas Alva Edison this ain't the film for you. In fact Edison the Man is the second film that MGM did on him. Young Tom Edison had come out before this one and Mickey Rooney played a boy's life version of him. At the conclusion of that film there was a preview that Edison the Man would be coming out soon starring Spencer Tracy.The widow Edison who was still alive at the time gave her personal stamp of approval on casting Spencer Tracy as her husband. Who wouldn't want his life's story portrayed by Tracy. But among the many things not shown was the fact that she was the second Mrs. Edison. The first Mrs. Edison, played by Rita Johnson in the film died in the 1880s and Edison married again the Gay Nineties. He had three children with each wife. So you can see a lot of the personal life has been left out.The film is told in flashback as an aged Edison is sitting at a banquet table listening to the toastmaster tell of his life. We only see about 10 years of it from the time he arrives in New York to when he proves the validity of the electric light by powering a section of New York.One of the great quotes from Edison is that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Inventing the electric light was the result of trial and error running into the thousands of methods and that is the part of Edison graphically shown. Edison is always held up as the great example of the American success story. He was a man with little formal education at all who had ideas and the natural ability and will to see them through. It should always be remembered that Edison gained his fame during the Horatio Alger era. He was the living embodiment of those stories about the poor kid who succeeds through hard work. The part of Edison that's not so nice, his battles over patents with other inventors, his ruthlessness in business exploiting those patents, that all comes later. It would take a mini-series to really do his life justice.But I think Edison himself would have loved to see the way MGM handled his life in both films. He certainly would have seen himself as Spencer Tracy plays him, the wise benevolent man, with an iron perseverance.Just don't anyone doing serious research on Edison use this film as a guide to his life.
theowinthrop
Spencer Tracy rarely played real people. He played a character based on Arnold Rothstein in an early film for Fox, and Henry Morton Stanley in STANLEY AND LIVINGSTON, and Rogers of Rogers' Rangers in NORTHWEST PASSAGE, and Clarence Darrow (Henry Drummond) in INHERIT THE WIND, and the Captain of the Mayflower in PLYMOUTH ADVENTURE. It seems like a large number of films, but it is really less than three percent of his movies. He also appeared in this film as the great inventor (over 1,000 patents) Thomas Alva Edison (1847 - 1931). In 1940 Edison was a national hero. Nobody was quite like him, although Alexander Graham Bell (soon to be subject of a film starring Don Ameche) was a figure of great interest too. So was Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph, and Eli Whitney, inventor of the Cotton Gin. However no films were made about them. There was a film with Fred MacMurray and Alice Faye about Robert Fulton and his steamboat, but none about the Wright brothers.Because of the period of history it was made in, film biography rarely was totally dispassionate. All Americans heroes were flawless, so all questions about Edison's stealing credit from assistants or other inventors was pushed aside (his involvement in the patent battles about the telephone is not mentioned). Nor were his flop inventions: pre-fabricated houses made of cement (actually a good idea, but ahead of it's time), the attempt to be the biggest gold ore refiner in the East (using huge machines to grind the ore out of rocks), the electric car motor. His bigoted feelings towards foreigners (Jews, rival inventors like Nicola Tesla) were not mentioned, nor was his rejection of the offer of a joint 1911 Nobel Prize for Physics (for the accidental discovery of the Edison Affect of carbonization in electricity) because he had to have it with Tesla for discovering alternating current. None of this is mentioned...only the string of great inventions he had a major hand in from 1868 to 1894. As a surface study of his career it is passable, and Tracy and the cast (in particular Gene Lockhart as his critic and nemesis Taggart) are splendid. You'll be entertained, but read A STREAK OF LUCK by Robert Conot for the true story.
