(70 min) Released 1936-05-08
Director: Kurt Neumann
Stars: Bobby Breen, Henry Armetta, George Houston
Genres: Musical | Drama
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027882/
Watched online. Available on Amazon Prime.
Out of sequence: should have viewed this between Captain January and Show Boat.
I guess the primary point of a Bobby Breen (lived 1927-2016) film is to hear him sing. He's got a good voice. He's also a decent actor.
This is his first film of 9. He's not as cloying as Shirley Temple is directed to act. But he portrays an "orphan" who seeks a better childhood. He values singing, and attaches himself to a faded tenor in a traveling show. The ending is incredibly facile. But we get a lot of songs, including some opera arias, along the way. (The IMDb Soundtracks page does NO justice to the quantity of singing in this film. But I have no way to credibly repair it.)
Since I don't like children performing, much less carrying the responsibility for the success of an adult venture, I'm not inclined to like this, and I didn't. The poor quality of the print contributes, and feels like it's missing some footage. Amazing production credit here and on 6 of the 9 films:
Bobby Breen Productions Inc., Sol Lesser Productions, distr. RKO, dir. Neumann; 5+
Update 17Aug2020:
Decided to buy copies of Bobby Breen films - I missed him. It's Alpha Video, so not great visual quality, but I expected that.
The plot does have some logic to it. I don't remember how Bobby first fell in with the former singer, but they bond over BB's singing, and that leads us to the eventual ending.
The kid could definitely sing.
I'm bumping this up to a 5.9 (58); 6.
