The Secret of Nikola Tesla

The Secret of Nikola Tesla (Serbo-Croatian: Tajna Nikole Tesle), is a 1980 Yugoslav biographical film which details events in the life of the Serbian-American engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), portrayed by Serbian actor Petar Božović. Tesla grew up in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, studied engineering and physics, and moved to New York in 1884. He became an American citizen in 1891 and is known for his contributions to electrical engineering.^[1]

This biography includes references to his abilities of detailed mental visualization as well as the slowly intensifying personal habits, indulgences or eccentricities for which he became nearly as well known. The film portrays Tesla in a battle with Thomas Edison over the superiority of Alternating Current over Direct Current. It also depicts Tesla's dream of supplying consumers all around the globe with limitless wireless energy.

Croatian director Krsto Papić assembled a cast which includes three American actors playing iconic personalities of 19th and early 20th century America, J. P. Morgan (1837–1913), Thomas Edison (1847–1931) and George Westinghouse (1846–1914). Morgan is portrayed by Orson Welles, while Croatian actress Oja Kodar, Welles' companion for the last 24 years of his life, has the role of Katharine Johnson (1855–1924), with whom Tesla corresponded for many years, and whose husband, Robert Underwood Johnson (1853–1937) (portrayed by Croatian actor Boris Buzančić) was a poet, scholar, diplomat and Tesla's longtime friend and supporter. The other Americans in the cast are character actors Strother Martin (who died six weeks before the film's September 12, 1980 English-language premiere at the Toronto Festival of Festivals) and Dennis Patrick as Westinghouse and Edison, respectively.^[2]

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. They were commissioned by Zagreb Film Studio director and pre-production coordinator Zelimir Matko.

Cast[]

• Petar Božović as Nikola Tesla
• Strother Martin as George Westinghouse
• Orson Welles as J. P. Morgan
• Dennis Patrick as Thomas Edison
• Oja Kodar as Katharine Johnson
• Boris Buzančić as Robert Underwood Johnson
• Demeter Bitenc
• Vanja Drach as Mark Twain

References[]

External links[]

• as "Tajna Nikole Tesle" at IMDb
• The Secret of Nikola Tesla at AllMovie
• as "Tajna Nikole Tesle" at Filmski-Programi.hr (in Croatian)