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The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939)

The film opens on a get-together, a conversation arises about our main character Alexander Graham Bell. The conversation was quite critical of bell with the general consensus being that he was a fool. When Bell enters, the party goers treat his intelligence, as well as his demonstration of how sound works as a comedic party trick.

Bell is then introduced to a prospect of helping Mr. Hubbard’s deaf daughter with speech after showing him his capabilities of teaching a child born deaf to communicate using a glove with letters on it, to which Bell accepts the offer. On his way to the Hubbard house, Bell loses his balance when a young lady on a sled fly by him, he scolds her for being so reckless telling her that she could have ruined his telegraph instrument. When explaining his invention to Mr. Hubbard, Bell fails to capture his interest.

Mr. Hubbard introduces Bell to his daughters, including his deaf daughter, Mabel. The next day Bell and Mabel, while on a wagon ride, talk about Bell’s plans with the telegraph and Bell admits to Mabel that he is no longer interested in the telegraph and this is when he introduces the idea of the telephone.

After Bell is kicked out of his home, he moves into his partners apartment. While trying to fine tune his invention, Bell discovers that he is missing a spring that Watson misplaced, or rather didn’t purchase because he bought something to eat instead. This leads to a heated argument that was short lived when Watson plucked the magnetized steel that sent a tune to the hand-held device that Bell was holding, that turned their anger and frustration into ecstatic joy for both men.

Bell makes his way to the Hubbard home to let everyone know of his monumental discovery. After telling Mabel of his discovery, he asks her to marry him and she accepted his proposal. Problems arise when he tells Mr. Hubbard, he tells Bell that he is not financially responsible enough to marry Mabel as he bounced from idea to idea, never finishing his previous tasks. Mabel pulls him aside and tells him to finish the telephone despite what her father said. Bell later laments about how is he going to build a receiver to interpret the vibrations sent through his contraption. He develops an idea through the concept of how human ears interprets sound finally developing a receiver in the process.

Bell placed water in the receiver cup to try and transmit the sound. When the water was unsuccessful, he added a small amount of Sulphuric acid to turn the water into a conductor. In the process, Bell spills acid on his leg and shouting in the receiver “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you!” to which Watson finally hears Bell through the telephone for the first time.

Bell later sets up a public demonstration of the telephone, the invention was received with laughter and ridicule, but that did not stop Bell. Soon there were hundreds of phones, but there was still a problem, Bell and the Hubbard’s were losing money. One offer arose that might help with the financial problem, England requested that Bell present the telephone to Queen Victoria. Bells idea was that if he could convince the Queen to install a telephone in her palace, then the whole world would follow suit.

After a very successful demonstration the Queen has one installed in Buckingham Palace. Bell arrives back at the hotel to tell Mabel of the great news but is only met with more bad news. Mabel tells Bell that a new company organized by the Western Union is trying to claim ownership of the invention of the telephone. Bell files a lawsuit against American Speaking Telephone Company. During the proceedings, American Speaking Telephone Company alleges that Bell had a fraudulent patent and that one of their engineers was the actual inventor. The judge tells Bell that he is going to give him some time to find any sort of paperwork that proves he is the inventor. Bell, thinking he lost, decided to go home but Mabel arrives at the last minute to deliver the paper that proved Bell’s claim to the telephone. As the court goes into consideration, Bell still thinks that he lost the case. Out of nowhere Western Union representatives show up to tell him that they are dropping the suit. They conducted an internal investigation where they found that the engineer fabricated the claim to make both Western Union and Bell look bad. They then release all ownership of the telephones that they owned to Bell. They then offered that if Bell let them continue to use the telephones, they would offer a very valuable business partnership. Bell accepts their offer making him a very rich man.

Questions to be asked about the film


 * What type of effect did this film have on the actors/actresses’ careers?
 * Ameche- old slang for telephone. URL > https://masterworksbroadway.com/artist/don-ameche/#:~:text=As%20the%20title%20character%20in,re%20wanted%20on%20the%20Ameche.%E2%80%9D


 * How was the film received by audiences when it first came out in 1939?


 * How much of actual history did they incorporate into the film?
 * The movie has the very basic use of actual history for the development of the telephone, as well as Bells previous indevors of teaching the deaf. Most of everything else is either slightly changed or completely fabricated. this is ultimately done to help build on the intended genre for the film.