Taking over the role of Thomas Alva Edison from his "Boy's Town" co-star Mickey Rooney in this follow-up to "Young Tom Edison", Spencer Tracy performed a George Arliss and Paul Muni like miracle of acting, turning into the famous inventor before your very eyes. This film (which can be seen without having seen its predecessor) deals with his arrival in New York City and his series of inventions from a recording device to the electric light, and a six month contract to get it up and running in New York or forever be shamed in scientific circles. Two character actors who supported Don Ameche's Alexander Graham Bell the previous year, are present. Charles Coburn plays the jovial General Powell who is Edison's biggest champion, while Gene Lockhart returns to his ruthless fool characterization as he becomes desperate to stop Edison from reaching his goal because of his financial involvement in the gaslights which previously (and dimly) lit up the streets.
The film starts in 1929 when the aged Edison is being honored at the Jubilee of light, flashes back 60 years (although Tracy never appears to look to be in his early 20's), examines his courtship of young Rita Johnson (introduced thanks to a broken umbrella), his support by Coburn after fixing a broken stock market ticker tape machine, and eventual battle with the scheming Lockhart. Rather than expand into a third Edison tale, this film simply lists his other inventions after the electric light, which includes a reminder that he also had a hand in creating the kinescope, something we now know as motion pictures. A full length version of that discovery and the patent wars (which resulted in lawsuits by the real Edison himself) would have made an intriguing completion to the tale, but alas never came to fruition.
This doesn't have the folksy atmosphere of "Young Tom Edison" (which is more family oriented in its narrative) yet is scientifically more important. Tracy really seems to become Edison, while Coburn, Lockhart and Grant Mitchell (as Lockhart's attorney) are excellent. The amount of comedy is somewhat limited, with a seemingly unnecessary inclusion of a young Tom Edison like inventor thrown in for a few later scenes. That doesn't diminish the value of this history lesson, given the MGM gloss and an important addition to the gallery of America's rise as an innovator in technology still in use today.
The film starts in 1929 when the aged Edison is being honored at the Jubilee of light, flashes back 60 years (although Tracy never appears to look to be in his early 20's), examines his courtship of young Rita Johnson (introduced thanks to a broken umbrella), his support by Coburn after fixing a broken stock market ticker tape machine, and eventual battle with the scheming Lockhart. Rather than expand into a third Edison tale, this film simply lists his other inventions after the electric light, which includes a reminder that he also had a hand in creating the kinescope, something we now know as motion pictures. A full length version of that discovery and the patent wars (which resulted in lawsuits by the real Edison himself) would have made an intriguing completion to the tale, but alas never came to fruition.
This doesn't have the folksy atmosphere of "Young Tom Edison" (which is more family oriented in its narrative) yet is scientifically more important. Tracy really seems to become Edison, while Coburn, Lockhart and Grant Mitchell (as Lockhart's attorney) are excellent. The amount of comedy is somewhat limited, with a seemingly unnecessary inclusion of a young Tom Edison like inventor thrown in for a few later scenes. That doesn't diminish the value of this history lesson, given the MGM gloss and an important addition to the gallery of America's rise as an innovator in technology still in use today.