Evening star., 1939-03-30

WI lily Ol llS SuOJCCl. ~ ll1luS lllC W al
spent himself mercilessly on tre-
mendous task, but who found time
always to be romantic. gentle, COM
passionate AS Twentieth Century,
Fox has told his story. DR.. Bell never
was man to let the big thing of
his life crush the small ones that
SO vastly enrich experience
Relatives, among them three who
acted as advisers to the studio. old
friends and leaders in all walks of
life participated in the special local
previeW which was held coinci-
dentally with the world premiere
of the film at the San Francisco
Exposition.
The picture, starring Don Ameche
in the title role and Loretta Young
as Mabel Hubbard, later Mrs. Bell,
deals with those dramatic years dur
ing which DR.. Bell was working upon
his, great invention. No cold, dull
tale of the laboratory is it for all its
technical aspects. Counterpointlng
the basic theme is the love story
the inventor and pretty Miss Hub
bard narrative which loses none
of it's humanness for being told with
becoming dignity.
Lamar Trotti, who produced the
screen script for Daryl Zanuck. does
his subject the courtesy OF never
trying to make him look superhu-
man. The consequence is that Ame-
che has an opportunity to play a
character whose proportions include
the faults as we'll as the virtues OF
the dreamer. Dr. Bell is revealed as
a man who could be weak as well as
strong, who could be discouraged as
well as confident and unatrald; VINO
Could-at moments count the m
venticn of the telephone we'll lost for
love. 1t is a much more impressive
portrait than that lueanZed one
which so often strains oti the quail
ties that make the hero recognizable
as a man. It should help to popu-
larize scientists, who have been
pretty sadly overlooked in the vast
concern to popularize their works.
The story of DR.. Bells life during
IIl6 pplIUIl Va tllN llINSllt2cti 40 NAA
folded in al orderly, simple fashion
He is introduced as the teacher OF
speech, the humanlst who dares to
dream that he can teach the dumb
to talk. who undertakes the lnstruc-
ton of a child mute to demonstrate
the case to himself At the time
DR.. Bell also is working on the
$o1a I,.c llV
winning the support OF Gardner
Greene Hubbard, solid citizen who
presides over family of four Comely
daughters. With ore of them Dr..
Bell falls in love Not only for him.
but for every one who uses the tele-
phone today that turns out to be a
very happy eventualitv, for when
ever his own strength of purpose
and patience are exhausted, Mabel
Hubbards resources of both come to
the rescue.
The tender relationship between
the two is one of the screens better
latter-day romances. Neither Miss
Young, whose three sisters appear
as the other Hubbard girls, nor Mr.
faIlCSllC 1idS llod ouCIl Cl1CCliNC lllo
terial in many films. Both take ex-
cellent advantage of their oppor-
tunities.
Without pressing for it in the
slightest, the film has managed to
achieve some excellent, unaffected
comedy. The two characters who
provide most Of it are Mr.. Hubbard,
played by Charles Coburn and Tom
Watson, Bells assistant. played by
Henry Fonda. MI. Hubbard is a
gentleman who lives by the clock,
whose every day is divided into lit
tie segments Of habit, with which
nothing must interfere. His con-
slant conflict with time and events
is full of droll results. Fonda, whose
comedy talents Hollywood has not
bothered greatly to discover, gives a
really fine performance as the young
electrician whose devotion to DR..
Bell cannot keep him from con-
stantly protesting the dullness of a
life devoted to attic laboratory work.
The general excellence of its in
depreciation helps the film most no.
tably at its climax where license
has been taken with court pro-
Cedure to allow Mr.. Ameche to plead
his own case. He gives such con-
viction to his plea for the small in
ventor-during his fight with the
powerful interests that would brand