4/10
Permanent Vacation
10 March 2012
Young Bobby Breen's career as a boy soprano movie star ends with Escape| To Paradise which is set in the fictional South American country of San Jacinto. Bobby's an enterprising soul who operates a motorcycle with sidecar that he uses to chauffeur the tourists around. It's his hope to get a real taxi as driving laws in South America are a lot more relaxed than they are here.

Enter rich playboy Kent Taylor who is described as being on a permanent vacation. He and Breen meet when Taylor is trying to get away from fellow tourist Joyce Compton. In getting away from her Breen dumps him literally at the table of Marla Shelton the daughter of a local tea plantation owner. Before long Taylor with his money is heavily involved with the local economy to impress Shelton.

Young Bobby shot up quite a bit since his screen debut in 1936. But soon his voice would change, he'd have a Peter Brady moment, and his career would evaporate. Breen did one other film three years later after this one where he was just a supporting player.

Bobby's films were released by RKO Pictures, but he had a good agent who worked out a deal where Sol Lesser produced the films with Breen getting a cut of the box office. He was not your normal contract star. Of course that only lasted as long as his soprano voice did.

This copy I saw was badly in need of restoration. The sound synchronization was non-existent toward the end. And Taylor was pretty bland. One really didn't have a rooting interest in whether he got Shelton or not.

Not a high note even Breen's octave range to end his film career on.
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