Make a Wish
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Kurt Neumann
Bobby Breen
Basil Rathbone
Marion Claire
Henry Armetta
Leon Errol
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Chip Winters, an energetic nine year old with a superior singing voice, ingratiates himself with the boys at Birchlake Camp in northern Maine. He also becomes a favorite of composer Johnny Selden, who has moved into a neighboring cottage while trying to write a New York-bound operetta. However, when Chip's mother Irene, whose letters to Chip have inspired Johnny's creativity, arrives at the camp with Walter Mays, her bossy fiancé, Chip gives them a mixed greeting. After spending the afternoon with Irene, Johnny, clearly taken by her, tells her the story of the first two acts of his operetta. Mays, who has forced Irene to quit her operatic singing career, chastises her for singing one of the operetta's songs at a party given by Selden, and announces that they are to leave Maine the next morning. Deeply disappointed, Chip says goodbye to his friends and departs for New York with Irene and Mays. Heartbroken that his future prima donna has gone, Johnny hands the last act of his operetta to his butler, Joseph, with instructions to deliver it to Wagner, his producer, and then disappears. On the way to the city, Joseph, a frustrated songwriter, and two other would-be songsters, Moreta and Brennan, lose the manuscript and cause the operetta's investors to panic when they try to sell their own mediocre material as Johnny's. Chip, hearing of the operetta's problems, rushes to Wagner's office and sings snippets of the last act. With Chip, Irene reconstructs the entire final act and, defying Mays, appears in the show. On opening night, Johnny returns, finally taking his prima donna in his arms.
Director
Kurt Neumann
Cast
Bobby Breen
Basil Rathbone
Marion Claire
Henry Armetta
Leon Errol
Donald Meek
Billy Lee
Ralph Forbes
Herbert Rawlinson
Spencer Charters
Johnny Arthur
Lew Kelly
Charles Richman
Fred Scott
Lillian Harmer
Barbara Barondess
Dorothy Appleby
Richard Tucker
Phillip Mcmahon
Billy Lechner
Jackie Egger
Dorr's St. Luke's Choristers
Leonid Kinskey
Crew
Louis Alter
Nate Barrager
Gertrude Berg
Gertrude Berg
Gertrude Berg
Al Boasberg
Joseph Boyle
Brymer
Larry Ceballos
Albert Deanno
Edward Gross
Arthur Hilton
William Hurlbut
Leo Felst, Inc.
Sol Lesser
Hugh Mcdowell
John Mescall
Abe Meyer
Harry Oliver
Willy Pogany
Hugo Riesenfeld
Edwin Schnatz
Bernard Schubert
Earle Snell
Oscar Straus
Oscar Straus
Paul F. Webster
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Score
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although the onscreen title card includes a copyright statement for "Bobby Breen Productions, Inc," the title was not found in copyright records. Basil Rathbone's character is spelled "Selden" in the onscreen credits, but in the film itself and in advertisements for the picture, it is spelled "Seldon." Al Boasberg, who is listed in reviews and Screen Achievements Bulletin as the author of the "comedy sequences," died before the film opened. Marion Claire, who had been a member of the Chicago Civic Opera, made her screen debut in this production. According to a March 1937 Hollywood Reporter news item, Los Angeles' orphanages were searched for 200 boys to use in the camp sequence. Motion Picture Herald's "In the Cutting Room" includes Herbert Colcombe, James Parker, Carlyle Moore, Harold Smith and Jack White in the cast, while a Hollywood Reporter news item adds Don Hulbert. Their participation in the final film has not been confirmed.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1937
Released in United States 1937
