Very disappointing...

Fresh and Exciting

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Bobby Breen was one of the more unusual stars of the late 1930s. While he only made 9 films, this boy was the star in most of them due to his incredible voice. It didn't hurt that he also seemed very natural on screen and quite likable. "Fisherman's Wharf" is one of his films that you can find on YouTube...and it's worth seeing as are all his movies.This story finds Bobby playing Tony Roma, a young boy who works with his family and their fishing business. It is a bit strange that Henry Armetta and Leo Carillo play members of his family as these two adults played some of the broadest sterotypical immigrants in movie history. Not brilliant casting but hey...it is Hollywood and they explain it away by saying he's a foster kid.Apart from the seaside setting and the pet sealion, in many ways the story that follows is like the great Shirley Temple film, "Bright Eyes". Like "Bright Eyes", the boy's life is made miserable when a bratty kid and his mother come to live with Tony and his guardian. Unfortunately, the guardian (Leo Carillo) is blind to his vicious sister-in-law and her brat. Overall, a decent film and a chance to see Breen in a slightly better film...one that has a bit less singing and a bit more plot than usual. Worth seeing. By the way, for you fishermen and women out there, watch Tony catching the big fish at the beginning of the movie. They use footage of a billfish on the line (a marlin or sailfish) but when they bring it into port it's become a tuna!

"Fisherman's Wharf" is the sixth of nine films that young singing star Bobby Breen made from 1936 to 1942. These were mostly B musicals put out by RKO. His earliest films were the best, before his voice began to change. This film was toward the end. The songs aren't quite as good as his earlier ones. The production quality of this film is quite rough. But, it's worth viewing for Breen's singing and for its shooting location. The film depicts the Italian immigrant fishing fleet that had developed in San Francisco Bay over the previous decades. While commercial fishing still operates out of the wharf area in the early 21st century, the boats are larger and of more recent vintage than the smaller boats common back then. I've visited San Francisco a number of times, and always go to Fisherman's Wharf. What struck me as odd in this movie was the arrival of a car that the locals noted were tourists. Apparently, the wharf was not yet widely visited or established as a tourist place in the 1930s. Surely, by the end of WW II, it began to attract tourists as much as fishermen.

And it's Lee Patrick and bratty Tommy Bupp as the aunt and cousin of San Francisco wharf child Bobby Breen. The adopted son of fisherman Leo Carrillo, Breen is unaware that Patrick's late sister and Carrillo adopted him. At first, everything seems nice with the arrival of Ms. Patrick and well-dressed Bupp, but it is soon revealed that the lovely sister-in-law is not the kindly broke widow she comes off initially. It's soon clear to housekeeper Rosina Galli that Patrick intends to take over. But nephew Bupp too isn't keen on being the poor relation, so he breaks the news very nastily to Breen that he's an orphan. That causes Breen to run away with a beloved pet, giving the unrealized possibility of the question being asked, "Have you seen a boy with a seal"? This melodramatic drama with songs (sung by the high pitched Breen) is overly sweet in spots, and it is easy to see why Breen is not as well remembered, even with a voice higher than Deanna Durbin's. Carillo is fine as the dad, and Patrick is really good as the manipulative aunt with passive/aggressive behavior. Rosina Galli and Henry Armetta add Italian humour to Carillo's pals, and Bupp plays the nastiest child on screen since Jane Withers. Slicker the Seal is cute too, but I can't find evidence proving he was the seal used as a stamp by the Marxx Brothers or used to push Eddie Anderson off a pier in "Topper Returns".

It is indicative of the lack of interest in Bobby Breen that despite the fact that this film was shown last July on TCM it has not yet received 5 votes and this is its first review.It has to be said that by the time this film was made Breen was about to enter those troublesome times for any child star,namely the teens.This film actually has a very good supporting cast not least of whom are Leo Carillio and Lee Patrick.Funny to think that after making such a minor film as this she went on to co star in The Maltese falcon for which she is rightly remembered.There is little to say about this film save that Breen sings a lot,Patrick comes in with her snotty brat of a son and causes strife were there was none but after a few tears being shed all ends up happily.To be honest this is only worth watching if you are a fan of Breen or any of the stars.