Themes: On the Campaign Trail, Rise and Fall Stories
Main Cast: Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, Dianne Foster, Pat O'Brien, Basil Rathbone, John Carradine
Release Year: 1958
Country: US
Run Time: 121 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Spencer Tracy stars in John Ford's sentimental adaptation of Edwin O'Connor's novel about the final campaign of a big city mayor, loosely based upon the life of Boston politician James Curley. Tracy is Frank Skeffington, the political boss of an Eastern city dominated by Irish-Americans. Skeffington tries to assist the people of the city and avoids cutting political deals with the power elite. But despite his concern for the people, Skeffington has no friends, just flunkies. The Mayor is greatly admired by his idealistic nephew Adam Caulfield (Jeffrey Hunter), who writes for an opposition newspaper run by Amos Force (John Carradine). When Skeffington needs money for a loan, he asks the powerful banker Norman Cass (Basil Rathbone), but Cass steadfastly refuses. In retaliation, Skeffington appoints Cass's retarded son as an interim fire commissioner. To prevent his son from disgracing the family, Cass agrees to the bank loan. But Cass uses his deep pockets to finance the opposition's candidate for mayor. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
The Last Hurrah is a solid political drama, entertainingly assembled by director John Ford and starring Spencer Tracy in one of his most charismatic roles. Though the details have been changed, this is very much a film about Irish political power in Boston. Ford seems to be suggesting that a little bit of corruption makes a city run better. Though his protagonist is a man of compromised ethics, you also get the idea that he's been a good mayor. The supporting cast is a treasure, with many familiar faces in key roles. Jeffrey Hunter and Pat O'Brien handle the major supporting scenes, but some of the film's best moments are provided by such veterans as Basil Rathbone, John Carradine, and Ricardo Cortez. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
Jean Louis - Costume Designer, Sam Nelson - First Assistant Director, Wingate Smith - First Assistant Director, John Ford - Director, Jack Murray - Editor, Robert A. Peterson - Production Designer, Charles Lawton - Cinematographer, John Ford - Producer, William Kiernan - Set Designer, Frank S. Nugent - Screenwriter, Edwin O'Connor - Book Author
The Last Hurrah is a 1958 film adaptation of the novel The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor. It was directed by John Ford and starred Spencer Tracy as a veteran mayor preparing for yet another election campaign. Tracy was nominated as Best Foreign Actor by BAFTA and won the Best Actor Award from the National Board of Review, which also presented Ford the award for Best Director.[specify]
The film tells the story of Frank Skeffington, a sentimental but iron-fisted Irish-American who is the powerful mayor of an unnamed American city. As his nephew, Adam Caulfield, follows one last no-holds-barred mayoral campaign, Skeffington and his top strategist, John Gorman, use whatever means necessary to defeat a candidate backed by civic leaders such as banker Norman Cass and newspaper editor Amos Force, the mayor's dedicated foes.
The role of Mayor Frank Skeffington was first offered to Orson Welles, as Welles recounts in Peter Bogdanovich's 1992 book This Is Orson Welles. However, "When the contracts were to be settled, I was away on location, and some lawyer -- if you can conceive of such a thing -- turned it down. He told Ford that the money wasn't right or the billing wasn't good enough, something idiotic like that, and when I came back to town the part had gone to Tracy."
