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.
