Breaking the Ice (1938)
“A boy, a song, and a long way home.”
Streamed free from the Internet Archive · no signup, no cost — this film is in the public domain.
Synopsis
A warmhearted Sol Lesser musical built around boy soprano Bobby Breen. Tommy leaves a Pennsylvania Mennonite farm with a fast-talking peddler (Charles Ruggles), finds fame singing at a Philadelphia ice palace, and races to set things right with his family. Tiny "world's youngest skater" Irene Dare supplies the ice spectacle.
Cast
About the Director
Edward F. Cline — Comedy veteran Edward F. Cline, later famous for W. C. Fields features, keeps the sentiment light and the pace quick. He frames Breen's songs and Irene Dare's elaborate skating numbers as showcase set pieces around a gentle runaway-and-reconciliation story.
Why It’s Free: The Public-Domain Story
Public domain in the United States. A US film from Sol Lesser's Principal Productions, released by RKO, whose original copyright was not renewed after the first 28-year term, placing it in the public domain. It shares the same non-renewal lineage as Lesser's other Bobby Breen pictures.
Behind the Scenes
RKO released Breaking the Ice on August 26, 1938, one of several musical features Sol Lesser built around the popular child singer Bobby Breen between 1936 and 1939. Composer Victor Young earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score.
Did You Know?
- Composer Victor Young was Oscar-nominated for the film's original score at the 11th Academy Awards.
- Six-year-old Irene Dare was promoted as "the world's youngest ice skater."
- Margaret Hamilton filmed this just before playing the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Reception & Legacy
Contemporary notices found it pleasant if sentimental, praising Breen's clear singing voice and the novelty ice-skating sequences. It remains a representative entry in the short-lived cycle of Bobby Breen family musicals of the late 1930s.
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