Make A Wish (1937)

In 1936, Bobby Breen hit the big screen in his first starring role in the film Let's Sing Again. The curly-mopped youngster was a male edition of Shirley Temple with a similar twinkle in his eyes and a decidedly better singing voice. 

Little Bobby Breen (no relation to the film censor Joseph Breen) was indeed a talented youngster and, while he remained young, RKO Studios milked his image for all its worth featuring him in eight films within three years. 

Unfortunately, little boys do not remain little boys forever and as Bobby's bones grew, his audience diminished. The studio didn't quite know what to do with a teenage singing sensation, especially when his soprano voice was beginning to take on tenor tones. The moment his voice broke, Bobby broke with Hollywood and decided to concentrate on his school education before entering the US Army during World War II.

While he was on top, he made some entertaining films, the best of which was Make a Wish co-starring Basil Rathbone and opera star Marion Claire. 

In this film, Rathbone played Johnny Selden, a composer of operettas, who likes to vacation in a cottage across the lake from a boy's summer camp. One day while fishing, he meets "Chip" Winters (Bobby Breen), a friendly lad with a beautiful singing voice who is staying at the camp. Chip's mother is a musical stage star. Chip shares with Mr. Selden one of the letters his mother wrote to him, and this triggers Mr. Selden's creative juices to bubble over, so much so that he bases his new operetta around Chip's mother who inspired it. When Mrs. Winters (Marion Claire) arrives at camp, Mr. Selden finds her ideal and asks her to star in his latest production in New York. She likes the idea but her fiancé, the stuffy Mr. Mays (Ralph Forbes), is set against it. This provides the drama of the film. Donald Meek provides the comedy in the form of a butler who wants to compose music himself. He teams up Henry Armetta and Leon Errol to unintentionally destroy Mr. Selden's final act. 

Make a Wish is a light-hearted musical aimed at children but entertaining enough for adults to enjoy as well. It leaves you with a feel-good feeling which makes it timeless. Like the Shirley Temple films, the script has some implausibility's in it, like Mr. Selden's theatrical producer deciding to go ahead with staging an opera while the third act remains incomplete (!) It also seems unthinkable that Mr. Selden would not be aware that his show was being made until opening night - Where was he, on an African safari with no phone or newspaper access?

The music in Make a Wish is delightful. Oscar Strauss (The Chocolate Soldier) wrote the score while Paul Francis Webster and Louis Alter penned the lyrics. Three songs stand out: the titular "Make a Wish", "Music in My Heart", and "Campfire Dreams" which oddly enough was not written by Strauss. It was composed by Louis Alter. 

Bobby Breen's movies have not yet been given a proper DVD release but they can all be found on Youtube in varying conditions. This one is a worth see if only to enjoy Bobby's fine singing voice.