The Story of Alexander Graham Bell

The Story of Alexander Graham Bell

4/4/1939 1h 38m 6.0/10

Overview

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. She urges him to put off thoughts of marriage until his experiments are complete. He invents the telephone, marries and becomes rich and famous, though his happiness is threatened when a rival company sets out to ruin him.

Director

Irving Cummings

Top Billed Cast

Henry Fonda

Henry Fonda

Thomas Watson

Don Ameche

Don Ameche

Alexander Graham Bell

Loretta Young

Loretta Young

Mrs. Mabel Hubbard Bell

Gene Lockhart

Gene Lockhart

Thomas Sanders

Charles Coburn

Charles Coburn

Gardner Hubbard

Spring Byington

Spring Byington

Mrs. Hubbard

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

6/22/2022

6/10

Don Ameche takes the title role in this biopic of the Boston-based Scotsman credited with the invention of the telephone, and he does bring a certain passion to an otherwise rather procedural drama. The story traces the development of his experiments with his friend Thomas Watson (Henry Fonda) and parallels with his budding romance with Mabel (Loretta Young) and for much of the time, it rather uncomfortably straddles the line between science and melodrama. The last twenty minutes - including a visit to Queen Victoria and a court case to establish the legitimacy of his patents, livens the thing up a bit and the supporting cast of Charles Coburn and Gene Lockhart add value, but it needed to focus more of the reason we know of the man, and of the huge significance of his technological advancement. Worth a watch for Ameche's performance, still, though.

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