Ah, Wilderness! (film)  Ah, Wilderness! is a 1935 American comedy-drama film adaptation of the 1933 Eugene O'Neill play of the same name. Directed by Clarence Brown, the film stars Wallace Beery and features Lionel Barrymore, Eric Linden, Cecilia Parker, Spring Byington, and a young Mickey Rooney. Rooney stars as Nat in MGM's musical remake "Summer Holiday" (1948). June 1906 in an unnamed New England town. 17-year-old Richard Miller is about to graduate and go to Yale. He already feels worldly wise, thanks to reading Shaw, Wilde, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, Swinburne and Marxist tracts. He adores the neighbourhood girl Muriel McComber, but she is afraid of being kissed. Richard’s father, newspaper editor Nat Miller is a kind, wise man. Richard has three siblings: older brother Arthur home from Yale; sister, Mildred, and Tommy, the youngest. Uncle Sid and Cousin Lily live with the family. Sid keeps proposing, but she refuses, ostensibly because he once got involved with a bad woman; his not-so-secret drinking is the real problem. Sid travels to his new job in Waterbury. At graduation, Richard drops his valedictory speech and Nat reads it. Nat turns a burst of applause into a final acclamation, forestalling Richard’s planned Marxist call to arms. After the ceremony, Nat asks if Richard’s conscience will allow him to drive the family’s Stanley Steamer. Of course, he is thrilled and asks Muriel to come along. On the morning of the Fourth, the street explodes in fireworks. The fired Uncle Sid reappears, but says that he has the day off. Lily hints that she would accept a proposal now. Sid doesn’t act, and she is hurt. Muriel's father storms in, accusing Richard of corrupting her morals. He gives Nat the letters and a farewell letter from Muriel, threatens to pull his advertising, then storms out. “Samples of the new freedom,” Nat says, showing Richard’s letters to Sid, who reads aloud a stanza from Swinburne’s "Laus Veneris". He stops and they both read silently. “Hail and Hallelujah!” Nat whispers. However, he is truly concerned. He tells Richard about Macomber’s visit; Shocked, Richard reassures his father: He plans to marry Muriel.