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Memorable, crazy movie

Just what I expected

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Hard to be objective about this prize winning movie! I have always considered myself fortunate that I lived during an era when you could watch a movie about Don Ameche playing Alexander Graham Bell. I remember him inventing the telephone while subsisting off apples and cheese. I also fondly recall this gem of an adventure. Nowadays kids look up to Rap and Hip Hop stars and pine to matriculate into the NBA. Justifiable ambitions, to be sure, but man, that young Tom Edison. He could make anything work better! This is actually the first time I don't want to say too much about the film, as I really don't want to spoil it for you. This is a great genre for young people that has never been fully exploited. The drama of the young inventor.Earlier you read my review about ZORBA THE Greek and his inspiration or epiphany if you will about building a contraption that would transport logs safely out of a forest and down a steep hill into an awaiting bin. Now it didn't work and we left our hero and his ward dancing Greek in the ruins of their failure. Well, here is an example where truth is stranger than fiction and comes out to a lot happier result for all concerned. You could easily imagine what Tom Edison would have said were he standing in the wake of such a disaster. "I haven't failed, I've simply found a thousand and one ways this won't work." Just another example of the spirit of American ingenuity and enterprise at work, folks.Mickey Rooney is great in this role. I could not imagine anyone besides Michael J. Fox bringing that kind of energy and enthusiasm to this acting assignment. This film has everything, a young boy always getting into something with his new ideas and developing a reputation around town as the 'addlepated' or 'addlebrained' son of Thomas and Nancy Edison. Who knows but today he might be diagnosed as having asperger syndrome and put on medication. But one thing is for certain, he has a genius for understanding mechanical advantage and sure can work wonders with mirrors and lights when the chips are down and you need to improvise an operating room on the spot.It is sheer fun watching Rooney as young Edison operating his own press and putting out a newspaper and hawking a cure-all with the rest of his wares that happens to have more kick than expected. It is thrilling and inspiring to see him reading and collecting a library chronicling the present state of scientific discovery in his time as he studies the work of such luminaries as Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Isaac Newton, and others. We see this young boy preparing for his future as a great inventor and to be the man he has yet to become.The ending of this film is a cliffhanger straight out of a silent movie. We see the young Tom adroitly apply a body of knowledge that saves lives instead of imperiling them and before we know it he is on his way into the future as the lights fade to black.Already I have said too much, but take my word for it this is a film that gives you a warm feeling about troubled youth, family, and the positive force that learning and ideas can have on the world.

Mickey Rooney stars as the teenaged Thomas Edison in this wonderfully entertaining MGM biopic. The movie covers the young inventor's struggles to fit in with a town full of people who don't understand him. He makes mistakes but proves his worth and ultimately becomes a hero.Rooney is his usual likable self. He tones his high energy down some and shows his dramatic skills. He really was a phenomenal star and a great actor. Superb supporting cast includes Fay Bainter and George Bancroft as Edison's parents, Virginia Weidler as his sister, and Eugene Palette as a railroad conductor. I really like the MGM sets and the 19th century American style. Lovely music, pleasant tone, and good cast. Script is a nice mix of humor, drama, and action. This is the first of two MGM biopics of Edison released in 1940. The other is Edison, the Man starring Spencer Tracy. That movie covers Edison's adult years so it's like a sequel to this picture. Both are excellent. These old biopics were usually solid, uplifting character-driven stories. Yes they take liberties with the details but the more cynical defamatory biopics we get these days do the same. I'll take an inspirational biography that builds people up and leaves you with the warm fuzzies over some deconstructionist tabloid trash any day.

I was very pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed this entertaining biopic about the early life of Thomas Alva Edison. While the film does stick close to Edison's true youthful experiences, the added bits of fiction are so good they actually help to further enhance the story. Mickey Rooney was the perfect choice to play the young inventor, his spunk and natural acting are a fine combination, bringing the youthful Edison to life. Underrated child actress Virginia Weidler is equally superb playing Edison's admiring younger sister. Fay Bainter and George Bancroft brilliantly play the parents of Tom, a boy who forever is getting himself into trouble with is scientific inventions and his misunderstood intelligence, which labels him a misfit among the town's people. This is where Fay Bainter excels as Tom's understanding, and lovingly patient mother. The dramatic ending to the story is very exciting. This film is both entertaining and touching, and perfectly fine for family viewing.

YOUNG TOM EDISON (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1940), directed by Norman Taurog, is an fact-based screen retelling of the boyhood years of one of the true greats in American history, Thomas Edison. As suggested by its opening passage, "This is a story of courage, the courage and triumph of a typical American boy. In all its essential facts, it is a true story. The boy actually did experience the adventures - the joys and sorrows portrayed here. His name might have been John Jones or Bill Smith. It happens to be Thomas Alva Edison." Rather than relying on sources covering Edison's entire life from birth in Milan, Ohio (1847) to death (1931), the screenplay, consisting of material by Harlan Dowry, which often plays like segments listed from Mark Twain's beloved character, "Tom Sawyer," the story as scripted deals mostly with Tom Edison of Port Huron, Michigan, a boy genius and the early life as he lived it.While the screenplay does toy a bit about the facts, overlooking the Edisons having seven children with Tom being the youngest, the narrative introduces Samuel Edison (George Bancroft), a hard-working husband; Nancy (Fay Bainter), his wife and former schoolteacher in Canada; Bill (John Kellogg), his elder son whose character is least interesting and under developed; Tannie (Virginia Weidler), the youngest daughter; while young Tom Edison (Mickey Rooney) is portrayed as the middle child While Tom is portrayed as a misunderstood 16-year-old who's irresponsible and accident prone, it's his love for science that actually stands in the way him having a normal childhood. Tom may be different from the other children but is very special in the eyes of both his mother and sister. Then there's Mr. Edison who not only constantly tells Tom, "Take your hands out of your pockets," but fails to find time and patience to accept him for what he is. Classified as slow and stupid by his spinster schoolteacher (Eily Malyon), Tom's also the laughing stock by most, especially his classmates, namely Joe Dingle (Bobby Jordan), a school bully and son of a local hardware store owner (Victor Kilian). Portions of the story depict Tom's heroism by saving the life of a station master's (J.M. Kerrigan) little boy (Richard Nichols) from an oncoming train; Tom earning a living by selling candy and newspapers on a train under Mr. Nelson (Eugene Palette), the conductor; Tom having to carefully dispose of nitroglycerin on a train full of people; and his expert knowledge sending messages through Morse Code. Because of situations beyond his control, Tom loses both job and respect from those around him, causing him to believe those accusations made against him.As much as these episodic situations take place during the course of a few years, it gives every indication of it set during the course of a few weeks. Whether the screenplay is true or not, whether Rooney physically resembles Tom Edison or not really doesn't matter much for that YOUNG TOM EDISON is a great film. Once seen, its hard to forget these standout scenes: the development of Tom's inventive mind brought forth by some clever devises; tender moments of family togetherness as the Edison's gather around the piano singing to the much underscored "Sweet Genevieve"; Tom finger rolling his right eye-brow while coming up with a positive solution; Mrs. Edison's motherly advice to her son as any mother could; Tom's despair while walking aimlessly through the rain as he hears in his mind voices of laughter and ridicule following his pleading with local business owners to give him a job; plus the climactic race against time segment as Tom makes every effort to save an oncoming train from danger through some ingenious plan. Aside from Rooney's excellent portrayal, Fay Bainter stands out most as the understanding mother while Virginia Weidler gives an unforgettable performance playing Tom's younger sister who repeatedly tells him with amazement, "Gosh, you're smart." George Bancroft with mustache and sideburns should not go without mention playing the stern father. Humor, sentiment and moral lessons in the tradition of Tom Sawyer are thrown in on few occasions, the best being where Tom Edison tricks his way from taking his overshoes and muffler on to his next ventures. With apple pie and milk being his favorite meal simply shows young Tom Edison the all-American boy with a bright future of great inventions ahead of him. When YOUNG TOM EDISON played regularly on commercial television prior to the 1980s cable TV generation, usually on Edison's birthday, February 11th, the promotional announcement presented after the film's closing showing Spencer Tracy in forefront of Thomas Edison's portrait as narrator talks about an upcoming sequel, EDISON, THE MAN (1940), was usually omitted. Not until its broadcasts on Turner Classic Movies has this final segment been restored in both 1991 home video distribution and later DVD presentations. Thanks to films such as these does the name and legend of Thomas Alva Edison live on. (****)