OPERA HOUSE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 243, 14 October 1939, Page 9

OPERA HOUSE

“ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL" The immortal role of the woman whose love inspired one of the most thrilling achievements in America’:, i past is brought to life by Loretta Young in Darryl F. Zanuck’s produc-, tion of “The Story of Alexander' Graham Bell," which commenced yesterday at the Opera House. The popular star has the greatest por-. trayal in her career in this stirring’ romantic drama as Mabel Hubbam i the beautiful deaf girl who loved the/ young dreamer, and out of whose af- | fliction was inspired the invention of the telephone. Don Ameche is starred opposite Miss Young in the title role of this Cosmopolitan production for Twentieth Century-Fox, which depicts in simple, human, and inspiring terms the hopes and struggles of the handsome young man whom people called mad because he believed it was possible for men’s voices to span contin- j ents through a copper wire. Henry 1 Fonda shares stellar honours with| the pair as Thomas Watson, Bella > tireless assistant and ardent admirer, i Some idea of the intensity of Beil’s | love for the beautiful and courageous , Mabel may be derived from the fact I that he was willing to abandon tne i invention of the telephone—the drcam | of his life —when he feared that fur- ; ther experiment with it would delay j their marriage indefinitely. Charles I Coburn plays Mabel’s father in the; film while Spring Byington i.s cast as ;her mother. The associate produce!,; Kenneth Macgowan, achieved a cast-1 ing coup by giving the roles of Mabel I Hubbard’s three sisters to the sisters of Loretta Young, Sally Blane, Poliy , Ann Young, and Georgina Young. ! Lockhart is also prominently cast in Yie picture as Thomas Sanders, liu iEan whose deaf child Alexander Graham Bell taught to speak.