Edison, the Man is so corny, it feels like the screenwriters learned a couple of trivia tidbits about his life-his Morse Code proposal and being hard of hearing-and then created a huge piece of fluff around them. That's probably exactly what they did, and they were rewarded with a nomination at the 1940 Oscar ceremony. "I'm almost afraid to flip the switch," Spencer Tracy laments, after it's been hammered home to the audience that he's tried the lightbulb over 9,000 times. There's no suspense! "Be careful with that," one of the workers warns young, impressionable, bumbling Gene Reynolds, before handing him something valuable and breakable. He starts up the stairs-do you think he's going to drop it? There's no suspense, because everything is so incredibly corny.
The good news is the supporting cast. Spencer Tracy heads up the title role, but once again, he doesn't do anything but be Spencer Tracy. Edison should have been played by Paul Muni, the king of the putting on heavy makeup to play a historical figure. He was angry at Hollywood and was taking a break, otherwise I'm sure he would have played the part, and done it infinitely better. But back to the supporting cast: Felix Bressart, one of my favorite under-utilized character actors, is given a very meaty role as Spence's most prominently-featured engineer. This is one of his only roles where he doesn't play someone bumbling or silly, so it's worth sitting through Spence and the corny script to see Felix pulling out all the stops. Gene Lockhart plays Edison's adversary, Charles Coburn is Gene's partner, Henry Travers plays a helpful friend during Edison's start, Rita Johnson plays Mrs. Edison, and Lynne Overman plays the comic relief. You won't see a historically accurate movie, but you will see Spencer Tracy in heavy age makeup, which makes for a nice change.
The good news is the supporting cast. Spencer Tracy heads up the title role, but once again, he doesn't do anything but be Spencer Tracy. Edison should have been played by Paul Muni, the king of the putting on heavy makeup to play a historical figure. He was angry at Hollywood and was taking a break, otherwise I'm sure he would have played the part, and done it infinitely better. But back to the supporting cast: Felix Bressart, one of my favorite under-utilized character actors, is given a very meaty role as Spence's most prominently-featured engineer. This is one of his only roles where he doesn't play someone bumbling or silly, so it's worth sitting through Spence and the corny script to see Felix pulling out all the stops. Gene Lockhart plays Edison's adversary, Charles Coburn is Gene's partner, Henry Travers plays a helpful friend during Edison's start, Rita Johnson plays Mrs. Edison, and Lynne Overman plays the comic relief. You won't see a historically accurate movie, but you will see Spencer Tracy in heavy age makeup, which makes for a nice change.