The Last Hurrah (1958)

Spencer Tracy dominates "The Last Hurrah", performing a very difficult task: he must play the role of a politician's politician, Frank Skeffington, but Skeffington himself is playing a "role", the role of mayor of a big New England City. That is to say, Skeffington is a master manipulator, controlling everyone around him in some way or another, even when he genuinely wants to befriend them or help them in some way. Skeffington must at times be a bully, sometimes a mentor, and other times just plain BS people he wishes to use. But Tracy the actor must walk a fine line that allows the viewer to know that Skeffington is play acting with those around him, without the other characters knowing. And Tracy being Tracy, he pulls it off in a masterful fashion.Now since this is a John Ford film, in order to really appreciate it we must know that "The Last Hurrah", like most any John Ford film, is part movie, part family reunion. Except for Tracy, and a few others, the entire cast is made up of actors and actresses who are veterans of multiple John Ford movies; thus, the presence of Jeffrey Hunter in the lead as Tracy's nephew makes me continuously feel like I'm watching an alternate version of "The Searchers", while Donald Crisp as the Cardinal reminds me of "How Green is my Valley". Countless minor parts, from the Seargent with two lines (Jack Pennick), to a viewer at a wake (a choice little part to Jane Darwell), to another viewer at a wake (Mae Marsh, with no lines; remember her as the heroine in "Birth of a Nation", 40 years prior? Ford gave her a number of uncredited cameos in her later years), make this film a who's who of the history of John Ford's films.By the way, James Gleason always cracks me up when he plays tough guys. Rail thin, he can't way more than 100 pounds soaking wet, yet he is always ready to knock some heads. And Pat O"Brien, energetic as always, looks like death warmed over in this film, but he did go on to live act for another 25 years.The only fault of this film is that it is too long. After Skeffington loses the election for mayor, there is a long scene of him slowly meandering home; I thought this was the end of the movie. But unfortunately there is a drawn-out half-hour coda in which Tracy suffers a coronary and slowly, slowly, ever so slowly dies, but not before he gets to meet up with most everyone who was in the movie. I'm not really sure whether this was necessary, other than to give Ford a chance to direct his usually classic scenes of pathos.But for the first 1.5 hours, it is a fast, funny and enjoyable ride with the John Ford Touring Company.

I'd been looking forward to this for a long time. I'm a fan of John Ford and he's given me some of my favorite films.I'll have to confess that "The Last Hurrah" disappointed me in many ways. The acting, particularly Spenser Tracy's was wonderful throughout. Ford's stable of stalwarts made the film glisten with their bit roles and backup. It was Tracy's film, though, and he's a virtuoso whichever way you view it.It's very much a black and white film - and I'm not referring to the color. There are the could guys and then the bad guys, with absolutely no subtlety at all. The good guys were the Irish who made it up the ladder through honest (?) hard work while the bad guys had English accents and inherited their wealth. Just think Basil Rathbone or John Carradine and you get the picture. The rival candidate to Tracy is an undisguised idiot with a hilarious but ridiculous "interview" on television including a barking dog and a wife who can't read. These are very, very broad lines.I can't help thinking about Frank Capra's descriptions of the other side, the "baddies" in such films as "Mr. Deeds" or "It's a Wonderful Life" There is absolutely no subtlety whatsoever. These people were educated and reared in wealthy families and should be punished. This is a very rural and dangerous flaw in the American personality that found its way in this film. But this time, they have English ACCENTS. John Ford has never been at ease with the English people in general. Sometimes, it borders on intense dislike or even hatred, and it's everywhere to be seen in this film. The protracted death-bed scene was so over-done and over-long it was embarrassing to watch. Just a-tuggin' at the old heartstrings. Cardiac arrest might be a more appropriate term. Ford didn't know when to stop. It's as plain and simple as that.Curtis Stotlar

I believe that I have watched "The Last Hurrah" six or eight times. It is not history. It is John Ford. Well, ... there's a bit of political, social and cultural history in this film and in the novel by Edwin O'Connor. It is a commentary, from Ford's point of view and with the customary Ford schmaltz, on big city politics in the first half of the 20th Century. Although the film never mentions the locale, it is Boston. The novelist, O'Connor, a New Englander from Rhode Island, admitted that the Frank Skeffington character was based roughly on James Michael Curley, who served as mayor of Boston four different times and as governor or Massachusetts and as a Congressman from Massachusetts. Curley wrote his autobiography in 1957, a year after O'Connor published his novel. Ford uses many of the stock company actors which he regularly used in the 1950s and '60s. But Spencer Tracy is splendid as Skeffington. When I later read the novel, I thought of Tracy as Skeffington and I constantly heard the harp music theme used in the film in my mind. "Ditto, Ditto, Ditto. How do you thank a man for a million laughs?"

A homespun and sentimental take on politics, with Spencer Tracy playing Frank Skeffington, an old style Irish Catholic big city mayor caught in a cooked up scandal by his blue blood Prostestant Republican enemies. Crowded scenes add to the pace as the characters whip through the sharp Frank Nugent screenplay like a hot knife going through butter. Directed by John Ford, the film previews the changes that have since taken place in American politics i.e. television imagery and big money, and here we see them presented in a political campaign pitting Skeffington against a younger, telegenic, politically inept opponent financed by the city's conservatives. With John Carradine giving a memorable performance as ultra-conservative newspaper publisher and ex-Klansman Amos Force, and personal favorite Ken Curtis playing a monsignor, the film blends the typical Ford elements: fairness and tolerance against hypocrisy and greed.