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 Miller
Lionel Barrymore	...	Nat Miller
Aline MacMahon	...	Aunt Lily
Eric Linden	...	Richard Miller
Cecilia Parker	...	Muriel McComber
Spring Byington	...	Essie Miller
Mickey Rooney	...	Tommy Miller
Charley Grapewin	...	Dave McComber (as Charles Grapewin)
Frank Albertson	...	Arthur Miller
Edward J. Nugent	...	Wint Selby (as Edward Nugent)
Bonita Granville	...	Mildred Miller
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:

valedictorian | boy | firework | small town | vamp | 

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Taglines:

The play that startled the nation!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

April 1936 (Japan)

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

This film's first telecast took place in Cincinnati Saturday 19 January 1957 on WXIX (Channel 19) (Newport KY); it first aired in Chicago 2 April 1957 on WBBM, in Seattle 10 April 1957 on KING (Channel 5), in Norfolk VA 15 April 1957 on WTAR (Channel 3), in Amarillo 28 April 1957 on KFDA (Channel 19), in Memphis 29 April 1957 on WHBQ (Channel 13), in Portland OR 17 May 1957 on KGW (Channel 8), in Omaha 22 May 1957 on WOW (Channel 6), in Syracuse 7 June 1957 on WHEN (Channel 8), in Salt Lake City 26 June 1957 on KTVT (Channel 4), in Hartford CT 30 July 1957 on WHCT (Channel 18), in Los Angeles 11 August 1957 on KTTV (Channel 11), in Philadelphia 26 August 1957 on WFIL (Channel 6) in New Haven CT 9 September 1957 on WNHC (Channel 8), in Altoona PA 23 September 1957 on WFBG (Channel 10), in Minneapolis 21 November 1957 on KMGM (Channel 9), in San Francisco 7 March 1958 on KGO (Channel 7) and, finally, in New York City 31 August 1958 on WCBS (Channel 2).

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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

Version of Hatsukoi (1939)

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Soundtracks

Waiting At the Church (My Wife Won't Let Me)
(1906) (uncredited)
Written by Vesta Victoria

User Reviews

In a word, enchanting

MGM's four big movies of 1935 were "Mutiny on the Bounty," "A Tale of Two Cities," "David Copperfield," and this one. It's the quietest of the four but to me the most impressive, a distillation of Eugene O'Neill's memory play (not his childhood, he said, but his childhood as he wished it were) that's bathed in nostalgia that's more potent and poignant than ever. Screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett get it past the Hays Office without really whitewashing its racier aspects (and Helen Flint's superb as the floozie who nearly corrupts our hero), and Eric Linden, who's entirely up to it, never again had this good a part. Top-billed Wallace Beery perhaps overdoes his drunken- charmer shtick, but Lionel Barrymore nicely underplays opposite him, and Aline MacMahon, always perfection, has one of her best roles--watch her reactions, how she plays love, disgust, and pity simultaneously. The rest of the family--Spring Byington, Mickey Rooney, Frank Albertson, Bonita Granville--are all exactly right. The MGM engineering--always-appropriate music, photography, costumes--helps rather than standardizes the material, the pacing's beautiful, and the warmth is unforced. You can weep at it and not feel like you're being manipulated.