MartinHafer This is an incredibly fictionalized account of the work of Robert Fulton to make the first American steamship. Alice Faye, Fred MacMurray and Ward Bond are there...even though they really were inventions of the playwright to first came up with this story. As a history lesson, it comes up lacking! What follows is sort of a comic book version of history--the sort of thing that Hollywood often did in their highly fictionalize 'true stories'.So is this any good? Well, it looks nice. Twentieth Century-Fox made lovely looking films and the music and glitz are all present in this expensive production. It's also mildly entertaining...but slight. No great drama or comedy here...just another highly fictionalized film along the same lines as "In Old Chicago" and nothing more.

Robert J. Maxwell In order to really get anything out of this movie, with being irritated, you must "bracket" this story, as the phenomenologists would put it. I happen to consider myself very knowledgeable when it comes to phenomenology, having read the Wikipedia entry. The phenomenologist, Husserl insisted, must "bracket," that is "suspend his belief in," "not make any use of" all presuppositions, all that he already believes in, in order to be able to accept presuppositionless description of a film. Or -- we could put it this way: Forget what you know about steamboats. Sit back and enjoy the simple-minded myth.Now, boys and girls, we all know that Robert Fulton invented the steamboat even though it isn't true. But let's make believe it is. Richard Greene is Robert Fulton, a well-dressed English gentleman who arrives in New York in 1807, when Thomas Jefferson was president, books a room in Alice Faye's rough-hewn boarding house and tavern, and hires Fred MacMurray to build the hull of his new "steamboat." The hull should be finished at about the same time his steam engine reaches New York from England. The problem is that Greene has no money and must find an angel.Little old New York is some city, by the way. MacMurray muses about getting a farm on the Bowery or in Greenwich Village. (Twenty years later, Edgar Allan Poe had to move to the Bronx.) The aristos wear white stocking but most of the folks are in fustian garb -- unprepossessing but as clean as if they'd just come back from the laundry. The men are all closely shaved by the studio barber. There may not have been any effective sanitation system but the streets are cleaner than they are today. Fist fights break out all the time and nobody gets hurt. There are many Germans and Dutch, a beer pavilions. Everything and everyone is cozy. It's all simplified, of course, but I like it. It's like reading a newspaper printed for the half blind. Any normal person would like to live in such a Cloud Cuckoo Land if it weren't for the epidemics and the horse manure.Richard Greene, Alice Faye, Fred MacMurray, and Andy Devine are all good natured and friendly. There's a friendly darky too. He's a funny guy but we can't be sure of his status. Slavery wouldn't be abolished in New York for another ten years. Ward Bond is not friendly at all. He's a figure of some authority on the waterfront and the first thing he does when he enters the tavern is pick a fight with Richard Greene. Greene speaks and dresses a little like a fairy but he soon decks the burly Bond. There's a real man underneath those furbelows.Greene has a lot of difficulty getting financing and there is a dismissible comedy romance to take up time, but in the end the hull and engine are mated and launched on the Hudson River. The jeering crowd is skeptical of the contraption. Does it finally work? Are you kidding?

theowinthrop I only saw this film in the 1960s, and memories of it are somewhat sparse. I recall Richard Greene trying to get financing for his steamboat, and finding roadblocks by various troublemakers, mostly local sailors who realize that steam power will hurt their sail oriented business. One moment that was well handled is the burning of the original "Claremont" (the actual name of the boat was "the North River Steamboat of Claremont" - Claremont was the name of the country estate of Chancellor Robert Livingston, Fulton's backer and brother-in-law). Another moment of the film was Greene's confusing meeting with Victor Killian, introduced to him as "Mr. DeWitt" (Greene thinks it's DeWitt Clinton - Killian is actually a thug trying to create a scene in which Greene can be beaten up). Alice Faye is given a song or two to sing, and is the love interest of MacMurray (who is also momentarily jealous of Greene, but still supports the steamboat at the end).If one is really interested in the story of this invention - our first really important invention in the industrial revolution - read James Flexner's "Steamboats Come True". The actual first inventor was John Fitch, who made a successful steamboat that ran to and from Philadelphia in 1790 - 1792). Fitch was clever, but he did not know how to make a plan of the invention that could enable him to rebuild a second working steamboat. It was a hit or miss thing with Fitch. In 1798 he committed suicide in Kentucky. Besides Fitch there were other inventors (Oliver Evans, James Rumsey), but Fulton had engineering training, and was able to make patents that could be followed to repeat his invention again and again. So 1807 is the year we usually credit for the invention of the steamboat.Yet oddly enough this is the only sound film of Fulton's invention that was made in Hollywood. I suspect it is because the Claremont was a prototype that lacked the glamor of later vessels (those that plied the Mississippi River from 1828 - 1900), and that (with a few tourist exceptions) no longer matters to us. More films dealing with railway and car transportation have been made - even more about aviation and submarines. So I suspect there will never be a more solid look at Fulton's career as artist, submarine pioneer, and steamboat developer. There is another film where Fulton pops up: "Austerlitz", a French film made in the 1950s where Orson Welles appeared as Fulton trying (in 1804-05) to interest Napoleon I in his submarine. That's about it. Maybe one day a serious film on Fulton will be made. Until then we have "Little Old New York".

Enrique Sanchez Richard Greene and Alice Faye are extremely likeable in this memorable movie about "Fulton's Folly" and his eventual success with the Steam Engine driven Paddle boat. An invention that changed America and contributed greatly to the prosperity of the newly independent America.It is a shame that Greene, though he did achieve some fame, did not achieve the name status his debonair looks and likeable charm deserved.Fred MacMurray, Andy Devine, Ward Bond and Fritz Feld have wonderful smaller roles. The perfect music of Alfred Newman gives each moment just the right effect and feeling.I recommend this movie even if one already knows what the ending shall bring. History told this enjoyably affords us the chance to relive the wonderful moments in the struggles necessary to bring about man's achievements.