The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939)

Directed by

Irving Cummings

Genre

drama film, biographical film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 35m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.3 of 10 from 19 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This biography follows Alexander Graham Bell as he works to invent the telephone. It shows his struggles with money, love, and science. The film ends with him winning a court case about the patent for his invention.

inspiringdramatichistoricromanticoptimisticunderdogsentimentalearnest

What happens

The Story of Alexander Graham Bell is a somewhat fictionalized 1939 biographical film of the famous inventor. It was filmed in black-and-white and released by Twentieth Century-Fox. The film stars Don Ameche as Bell and Loretta Young as Mabel, his wife, who contracted scarlet fever at an early age and became deaf. The first half of the film concentrates on the hero's romantic, financial, and scientific struggle. Henry Fonda is notable in a co-starring role as Mr. Watson, who hears the first words ever spoken over the telephone. In a pivotal scene, Bell (Don Ameche), while working on the telephone, accidentally spills acid onto his lap and shouts in pain, “Mr. Watson, come here! I want you!” Watson, barely able to contain his own excitement, rushes into the room and stammers out the news that he heard Bell calling out to him over the telephone receiver. Bell has Watson repeat his own words to him to confirm it, and the two men begin hopping around the room, with Watson yelling out a war whoop. The last part depicts the legal struggle against Western Union over patent priority in the invention of the telephone, ending with a courtroom victory. The final scene has the hero contemplating crewed flight, under his wife's adoring gaze. The film led to the use of the word "ameche" as juvenile slang for a telephone, as noted by Mike Kilen in the Iowa City Gazette: "The film prompted a generation to call people to the telephone with the phrase: 'You're wanted on the Ameche.'" Such an identity between Ameche and the telephone was forged, that in the 1940 film Go West, Groucho Marx proclaims, "Telephone? This is 1870, Don Ameche hasn't invented the telephone yet." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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