Edison, the Man (1940)

As was typical of the bio-pics of its time, and to a lesser extent those of today, Edison, the Man is more concerned with conveying a mythic sense of its subject then with historical accuracy. This movie covers the life of Thomas Edison from roughly the late 1860's to the early 1880's (plus a framing story set in 1929) all with a focus on the inventors pursuit of viable electric light. Edison's development of an improved stock ticker, as well as the phonograph are depicted in this film, and many of his post light bulb inventions are mentioned in montage at the end, but the focus is on the light bulb, Edison's most iconic, and arguably most important invention. Spencer Tracey plays Edison, and sells the part as a benevolent, quirky idealists.

Down on his luck at the beginning of the film Edison travels to New York City to visit an old friend from his days as telegraph operator and secure financing for his efforts to develop electric light. His friend (Lynne Overman) proves a flake, but the man's uncle (Henry Travers) gets him a job as janitor at the firm of powerful financier Mr. Taggert (Gene "Exasperation" Lockhart). One day Edison helps fix one of Mr. Taggerts old school stock tickers, which secures him a meeting with the man and his associate General Powell (Charles Coburn) at which he pitches his idea for an improved ticker of stocks. The two set Tom up in a machine shop to do his work, there he succeeds in making a better ticker, earns the loyalty of a motley crew of fellow inventors who follow him to the new shop he opens with his ticker patent money, and has a pro forma generic romance with the future Mrs. Edison (Rita Johnson) who then retreats largely to the background for the rest of the picture.

Eventually Edison falls on hard times, is just not quite able to crack electric light and is on the verge of losing his Menlo Park shop, then he all about accidentally invents the phonograph over a long weekend. Anyway after much trial and error Edison creates a working light bulb and the movie is closed out with Tom's successful effort to electrically light a portion of Manhattan before an arbitrary deadline. It is of course Tracey who makes the movie, his Edison's a grown up Tom Sawyer with a knack for mechanics, a strong supporting cast of well known character actors and what looks to be a darn good budget add to this pleasant, to be taken with a grain of salt, but right in spirt tale. ***

Young Tom Edison, covering the inventors formative years was also released by MGM that same year, it featured Micky Rooney as Tom and includes a cameo appearance by Tracey.