Ah, Wilderness! (1935)

Story of small-town life in turn-of-the-century America, and a young boy's problems facing adolescence.

Director:

Clarence Brown

Writers:

Frances Goodrich (screen play), Albert Hackett (screen play),

Stars:

Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Aline MacMahon

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Wallace Beery	...	Sid
Lionel Barrymore	...	Nat
Aline MacMahon	...	Lily
Eric Linden	...	Richard
Cecilia Parker	...	Muriel
Spring Byington	...	Essie
Mickey Rooney	...	Tommy
Charley Grapewin	...	Mr. McComber (as Charles Grapewin)
Frank Albertson	...	Arthur
Edward J. Nugent	...	Wint (as Edward Nugent)
Bonita Granville	...	Mildred
Helen Flint	...	Belle
Helen Freeman	...	Miss Hawley

Storyline

Young idealist Richard Miller is selected as valedictorian for his New England high school commencement class of 1906 and intends to inject modern anti-capitalistic ideas into his speech. His father, Nat Miller, accidentally learns of it and interrupts Richard's speech before he can make a fool of himself. The small town later celebrates the Fourth of July with customary fireworks, picnics and the like, with Richard spending time with his girl, Muriel McComber, who promises she will allow him to kiss her one day. When Richard sends poems of love to Muriel, quoting the likes of Omar Khayyám and Swinburne, her father prevents her from ever seeing him again and forces her to write a letter denouncing him. Heartbroken, Richard drowns his sorrow in a local bar, drinking and smoking with a vamp called Belle, and comes home drunk. Alcoholic uncle Sid, who is used to the effects of liquor, nurses Richard back to sobriety, but Richard still must face the uncertain punishment of his father as ...

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Plot Keywords:

vamp | small town | firework | boy | valedictorian | 

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Taglines:

The play that startled the nation!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 May 1936 (France)

Also Known As:

Ayer como hoy

Filming Locations:

Clinton, Massachusetts, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original production opened at the Guild Theater (New York) on October 2, 1933 and played for 289 performances. The original cast included actor/song writer/playwright George M. Cohan. The play has been revived on Broadway four times since the original production.

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Goofs

The "Stanley Steamer" automobile is depicted as chugging and back-firing, which are not possible with steam engines. These are characteristics of internal combustion engines.

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Quotes

Richard 'Dick' Miller: I'm afraid I was born a hundred years before my time.
Muriel McComber: I was born ten days ahead of mine.

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Connections

Referenced in The Simpsons: Boy Scoutz 'n the Hood (1993)

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Soundtracks

"Daysy Bell (A Bicycle Built for Two)"
(1893) (uncredited)
Music by Harry Dacre
Played on a player piano

User Reviews

Long Long Ago, Long Ago

Eugene O'Neill's gentle nostalgic comedy got the full blown MGM treatment with Clarence Brown guiding a topflight cast in the standard interpretation of Ah Wilderness. My only complaint is that George M. Cohan who played the father of the Miller family did not repeat his role for the screen. Cohan could not/would not do the film and his loss was an opportunity for Lionel Barrymore who did the part with a sure hand.

According to a book on the Barrymore dynasty, Lionel was upset with Louis B. Mayer for whom he was usually a loyal employee when Brown under Mayer's orders tilted the film and the billing toward Wallace Beery's showier part of Barrymore's alcoholic brother-in-law. Watch the two of them in scenes together as they try and top the other. It must have been one tense set. On stage Gene Lockhart did the part of Uncle Sid.

The young protagonist about whom the action swirls is middle son Eric Linden. Barrymore does some creative interrupting at his son's valedictorian address filled with radical notions. Linden is rather clumsily courting Cecilia Parker and when she puts him off he goes out on one tremendous toot, taking his uncle Beery as a role model.

If there was one thing Eugene O'Neill knew from this life it was alcohol and the effects thereof. Think about all the works he did where substance abuse is at the center. His greatest play, The Iceman Cometh is set entirely in a bar.

Ah Wilderness is like the rest of O'Neill's works, no real plot to them, but deep character studies from a slice of life. Ah Wilderness being a comedy probably was easier to translate to the screen, even so the play which is set entirely in the Miller living room gets moved to the graduation and later to the tavern where Linden ties one on. On stage Elisha Cook, Jr. played the clumsy son.

Mickey Rooney played young son Tommy in this version. Thirteen years later when he was the other side of too old for the part he played the Eric Linden role in a musical version Summer Holiday which proved that O'Neill should not be the basis for a musical even his only comedy.

After 75 years, Ah Wilderness holds up very well and I think O'Neill probably approved of this version with the caveat that it had to conform to the Code. Helen Flint's part as a prostitute who gets Linden drunk and probably gives him a tumble was cleaned up by the Breen office. Given the code parameters, Ah Wilderness was as good as it could get.