The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Irving Cummings

Writers:

Ray Harris (story)
Lamar Trotti (screenplay)

Release Date:

14 April 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

Darryl F. Zanuck's Entertainment gem will take its place in the Hall of Fame !

Plot:

Alexander Graham Bell falls in love with deaf girl Mabel Hubbard while teaching the deaf and trying to invent means for telegraphing the human voice...

Plot Keywords:

Telephone | Alexander Graham Bell | Marriage Proposal | Christmas | Historical

Cast

Don Ameche	...	Alexander Graham Bell
Loretta Young	...	Mrs. Mabel Bell
Henry Fonda	...	Thomas Watson
Charles Coburn	...	Gardner Hubbard
Gene Lockhart	...	Thomas Sanders
Spring Byington	...	Mrs. Hubbard
Sally Blane	...	Gertrude Hubbard
Polly Ann Young	...	Grace Hubbard
Georgiana Young	...	Berta Hubbard
Bobs Watson	...	George Sanders
Russell Hicks	...	Mr. Barrows
Paul Stanton	...	Chauncey Smith
Jonathan Hale	...	President of Western Union
Harry Davenport	...	Judge Rider
Beryl Mercer	...	Queen Victoria

Also Known As:

The Modern Miracle (UK)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #5038)

Company:

Cosmopolitan Productions

Trivia:

Alexander Graham Bell's daughter, Mrs. Gilbert Grosvenor, had official script approval.

Quotes:

Alexander Graham Bell: Your honor... Have I committed some offense by starving in an attic? by spending sleepless nights at my work? by being too poor to own a decent scrap of paper, on which to tell her of my love? I have sat here for days and heard myself called liar, thief, fraud and cheat. I've seen my friends humiliated, my invention belittled, just as I have seen my business destroyed by methods which must leave every honest man appalled.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in It's in the Bag! (1945)

Soundtrack:

The Star Spangled Banner

Inventing the telephone

This film has a unique place in movie history. The Story of Alexander Graham Bell not only gave Don Ameche his signature role, but Ameche's very name entered the English slang. Still today, a telephone is sometimes referred to as an "ameche."

Bell was a Scottish immigrant who came by way of Canada to the Boston area. At the time the film opens, Don Ameche is a teacher of deaf children. He's also employed as a private tutor to one particular child, Bobs Watson who is Gene Lockhart's son. There scenes have a particular poignancy.

Ameche also woos and wins Loretta Young, a deaf woman who is the son of prominent businessman, Charles Coburn, who later backs him in his scientific work and business ventures.

As you can imagine living in a world with a whole lot of silent people and a natural scientific bent made him curious about sound. In inventing the telephone, Bell sought to break the sound barrier which was then limited by how loud the loudest person could shout.

The famous scene with assistant Henry Fonda when Bell's own voice goes over a wire for the first time is there. And his later patent struggles are also well documented.

But it is Don Ameche's sincere and straightforward interpretation of Alexander Graham Bell that makes this film memorable. And he's matched every step of the way by Loretta Young as his wife. Ms. Young by the way got to be in this film with all three of her sisters, playing her sisters, a rare treat.

Given Bell's lifelong interest in the deaf, I'm sure that today with the invention of TTY lines to help deaf people communicate by phone, he'd be doubly proud of what he had accomplished.

A good film and a great tribute to a great scientific and humanitarian individual.