Make a Wish

For me this film goes in the excellent group because I find myself coming back to it over and over again. The storyline is uncomplicated and perhaps predictable, but the content of the story is a very worthwhile glimpse of a young boy's life during one eventful summer which starts at a boys' camp in Maine. Chip (Bobby Breen) and Pee Wee (Billy Lee) and the other boys make the story forever delightful. Here a young boy, Chip, feels keenly that his happy life is about to be invaded, and he is intent on changing the course of events. With a truly sincere heart and boyish cunning he sets his plan in motion. He is always more clever but also more polite than the adult antagonists he confronts. There is much to love and much to enjoy in this story. The boys in particular are excellent in their parts, nicely developing individual characters. The singing is wonderful, as are the very meaningful expressions on Bobby Breen's face.

This musical is mostly pleasant, but is almost entirely predictable after the first few minutes. Everything is watchable, but that's all. Basil Rathbone seems pretty well cast as an eccentric composer, but the plot does not give him all that much to do. Bobby Breen is likable as a young boy at camp, and there are some fairly amusing moments from some of Rathbone's associates. It's easy to pull for the main characters, but any excitement or real interest is dissipated by the completely routine story-line. It's an average musical, no more and no less.

.Bobby Breen stars as Chip Winters, a precocious ten-year-old singing prodigy who is attending summer camp in Maine. Across the lake from the camp lies the residence of composer Johnny Selden (Basil Rathbone), who has moved from the city in order to overcome his creative stagnation. Selden meets Chip and the two become friends, and the youngster decides to try and set the older man up on dates with Chip's mother Irene (Marion Claire).

This cornball schmaltz had to have been irritating even in 1937. Breen sings a lot, Claire sings, and everyone's sweet and wholesome. Yuck. Was there really a time when a large group of boys would sit around quietly and watch Bobby Breen sing "Polly-Wolly-Doodle all the day"? I wasn't even there and I wanted to scream. I watched this for Rathbone, who may have appreciated getting to play something other than a creep or scoundrel. The movie earned an Oscar nomination for Best Score (Hugo Reisenfeld).

An amusing incident occurred during the filming of this movie. Henry Armetta and Basil Rathbone were talking between scenes. Armetta had placed a cigarette stub in his pocket (an old habit) so he could finish it later. But it came into contact with an open book of matches in his pocket. One observer on the set reported that Armetta then gave "a very good imitation of a Roman candle on a rampage."

Chip (Bobby Breen) is off enjoying summer camp. During his time there, he meets a composer, Johnny Seldon (Basil Rathbone), who is vacationing nearby and the two strike up a friendship. Chip convinces Johnny he needs to hear his mother sing, as she has a gorgeous voice and would be great in his new operetta. When Johnny meets her and hears her sing, he's inspired and insists she star in his show. But when her fiance insists that she not return to the stage, Johnny's heart is broken and Chip is not happy about having this guy as his potential step-father. So, he decides to play cupid and he hopes to get his mother and Johnny together by the end of the story.

Back in the 1930s and early 40s, Bobby Breen was a most unusual movie star. For a small child, he had an incredible voice...so incredible that he later quit films and went on to be a professional singer. As far as his films go, despite being relatively low budgeted, they had a certain likability about them...mostly because Breen seemed like such a sweet kid. This film is no different...with some very catchy songs and Breen once again cute and likable. And, in addition, this time the boy is given better than usual support. While oddly cast, Basil Rathbone is quite nice as the nice-guy composer.

The only thing about this pleasant film I didn't like was the mother's singing...it was even more high pitched than Bobby's and was a bit hard to take. Also, while not a bad thing, the way Chip and Johnny met in the film was a bit creepy by today's standards....with Johnny catching Chips bathing suit and the boy naked in the water asking a stranger for his clothing. In the day, it was a cute scene...today folks might be a big creeped out by it, sadly.

Young Bobby Breen poaches a bit on Deanna Durbin's territory in this film, Make A Wish. Usually Deanna was acting like little Miss Fix-It in her films and was often trying to matchmake for a parent while contributing a song or two. Well Breen at that age certainly had the soprano that Deanna had.

He comes by it naturally as his mother is concert/operetta singer Mary Clare. She's engaged to one stuffy drip played by Ralph Forbes who wants her to give up her career as he does not like show business.

Breen is in summer camp in Maine which just happens to be located across the lake from composer Basil Rathbone's place where he lives with butler/factotum Donald Meek. Rathbone who played the exact same role in Rhythm On The River has lost his creative muse and Breen and later Clare inspire him. But Forbes is determined to quash all that.

Make A Wish is a pleasant enough film featuring not only Bobby's soprano, but Mary Clare in her one and only film. Years ago I remember seeing an adult Breen on an interview, it might have been Joe Franklin's program, where he said that Rathbone got along well with him and the other kids in the cast.

I also enjoyed Henry Armetta and Leon Errol as a pair of Tin Pan Alley hack composers who really stink up the screen with their awful music. Still a nice family film although God knows the type of music done here is terribly dated.