''The Secret of Nikola Tesla'' ( sh, Tajna Nikole Tesle), is a 1980 Yugoslavbiographical film which dramatizes events in the life of the Serbian-American engineer and inventor
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...
alternating current
Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...
and then "free" wireless power.
Plot
Tesla in a hotel room in 1943 talks to a reporter. He then reminisces about how things would be different if J. P Morgan had listened to him.
Tesla arrives in the US in the 1880s. He tries to convince his new employer, Thomas Edison, to adopt his newly invented electric induction motor running on an
alternating current
Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...
(AC) system but Edison claims
direct current
Direct current (DC) is one-directional flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through semiconductors, insulators, or eve ...
(DC) is better and turns him down. Robert Underwood Johnson and his wife Katharine, who were at the meeting, later find Tesla digging a ditch, having quit his job at Edison. Tesla strikes a business deal with two investors to finance development of his motor. He shows off his AC system at meeting of the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers
The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was a United States-based organization of electrical engineers that existed from 1884 through 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) to form the Insti ...
but Edison, in the audience, claims it is impractical. After the reporters, and even Tesla's own investors, turn away from him George Westinghouse convinces Tesla to sell him his AC patents and offers a contract to pay Tesla a royalty on his motor design. They end up in a public battle trying to demonstrate the their system is not unsafe (as Edison claims) and is actually better than DC. J.P. Morgan, pulling the strings in the background, calls Tesla and Edison into a meeting and, unhappy with Edison's progress electrifying his factories, tells Tesla he can try to prove AC would work better.
At a banquet celebrating the building of an alternating current power plant at Niagara Falls Tesla confuses the audience with his futuristic ideas about his high frequency wireless AC transmission system and then tells someone he is off to Europe to see his family (who he has been having flashbacks about). On that trip he visits his bed-ridden mother who dies in his arms. He then wanders out in the country side having flash backs about his childhood and the death of his brother, all punctuated by visions of falling water and lightning. Westinghouse and Katharine visit Tesla back at his New York lab where the inventor tears up his royalty contract to save Westinghouse from financial ruin. Tesla goes on to develop his wireless power system, making several reports to Morgan on his progress. Morgan tells Tesla he is unhappy with wild stories about the inventor but keeps backing him.
Westinghouse warns Tesla (who is now building his Morgan financed Wardenclyffe wireless power station) to watch out for Morgan's motives and Katharine tells the inventor how she wished they could have had more of a relationship together. Tesla learns from Morgan that Guglielmo Marconi has stolen his wireless patents and that
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
has new theories about matter and energy. Tesla tells Morgan these new theories are a "crime against nature" and tries to get Morgan to back his free wireless power system before it is too late. After Tesla leaves Morgan says he won't back a system that would put him out of business and orders all further interaction with Tesla cut off. Tesla looks over his demolished Wardenclyffe station and complains, at the end of his life in a world choked with smog, that he wished Morgan had listened to him.
Strother Martin
Strother Douglas Martin Jr. (March 26, 1919 – August 1, 1980) was an American character actor who often appeared in support of John Wayne and Paul Newman and in Western films directed by John Ford and Sam Peckinpah. Among Martin's memorable pe ...
as
George Westinghouse
George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age ...
*
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
as
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...
*
Dennis Patrick
Dennis Patrick (born Dennis Patrick Harrison; March 14, 1918 – October 13, 2002) was an American character actor, primarily in television.
Early years
Patrick was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Career
Patrick is known for his work in ...
as
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...
Robert Underwood Johnson
Robert Underwood Johnson (January 12, 1853 – October 14, 1937) was an American writer, poet, and diplomat.
Biography
Robert Underwood Johnson was born in Centerville, Indiana, on January 12, 1853. His brother Henry Underwood Johnson b ...
*
Charles Millot
Charles Millot (born Veljko Milojević; 23 December 1921 – 6 October 2003) was a Yugoslav-born French actor who made many film appearances over a 35-year period.
His notable film appearances include: '' The Train'' (1964), ''The Night of t ...
Vanja Drach
Vanja Drach (1 February 1932 – 6 September 2009) was a Croatian theatre and film actor.
His film and television credits include '' H-8'', '' Lud, zbunjen, normalan'', '' Gospa'', '' Charuga'', '' Kapelski kresovi'', ''Nikola Tesla'', '' Svjedo ...
. Besides lead Yugoslavian actor Petar Božović, director
Krsto Papić
Krsto Papić (7 December 1933 – 7 February 2013) was a Croatian screenwriter and film director whose career spanned over five decades. He is generally considered among the best directors of former Yugoslavia and the only director from Croatia th ...
assembled a cast which includes three American actors playing iconic personalities of 19th and early 20th century America, Orson Welles as Morgan, Strother Martin (who died six weeks before the film's premiere) as Westinghouse, and Dennis Patrick as Edison. Croatian actress Oja Kodar, playing Katharine, had been Welles' companion for almost two decades at the time of filming.
The film was written by Ivo Brešan, Ivan Kušan, and Krsto Papic. Two American writers contributed to the screenplay and are cited with on-screen credits. They are John W. English, University of Georgia journalism professor, and Dee Brown, author of ''
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
''Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West'' is a 1970 non-fiction book by American writer Dee Brown that covers the history of Native Americans in the American West in the late nineteenth century. The book expres ...
''. They were commissioned by Zagreb Film Studio director and pre-production coordinator Zelimir Matko.
Release
The film was premiered in Yugoslavia on Tesla Day, July 10, 1980. The film had a further September 12, 1980 English-language premiere at the
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...
and had a small US theatrical run in 1985.
Critical reception
Online reviewers note the accurate portrayal of period settings and costumes and thought the major interest for most audiences would be the portrayal of Morgan by Orson Welles. The low production values, continual switching between Serbo-Croatian and poorly dubbed English, and flashbacks burred within further flashbacks were found distracting. It is noted to play like a history lesson instead of a study of Nikola Tesla's character. A
3 Quarks Daily
''3 Quarks Daily'' is an online news aggregator and blog that curates commentary, essays, and multimedia from selected periodicals, newspapers, journals, and blogs. The focus is on literature, the arts, politics, current affairs, science, philos ...