The Last Hurrah

source: The Last Hurrah

Just as you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear, a great cast can't overcome the handicap of a terrible script. The laughs are where the tears should be. It's nothing less than a pity to see so much talent wasted. For those looking for a great political film (and more), watch the unforgettable "Citizen Kane."

Last Hurrah, The (1958) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Spencer Tracy plays a Mayor who is running for office for perhaps the last time and he invites his nephew (Jeffrey Hunter) along to see how a campaign is run. I must admit that I was pretty letdown with this film considering the talent involved. When you have Ford directing actors such as Tracy and Hunter then I expected a lot more than what was actually delivered. The supporting cast contains brilliant actors such as John Carradine, Basil Rathbone, Dianne Foster, Pat O'Brien, Wallace Ford, Donald Crisp, Ricardo Cortez and Frank McHugh. There are signs a greatness throughout this film but they're often followed up with overly talky scenes that just drag on for no reason at all. Ford is trying to make all sorts of points about the political game but when he speaks these points he just keeps on and on. There's a scene inside a funeral that has political motivations behind it and this scene is the perfect example of a message being beaten to death and dragged down into boredom. There are several great sequences including one where Tracy blackmails Rathbone into doing some good for the city and there's another great scene when Tracy busts in on some bank managers who are using race to work against him. Tracy is good in his role but I don't think this is among his best performances. Hunter delivers a nice performance as well but I found his role to be rather underwritten. I think Carradine steals the film as the racist newspaper editor who holds a grudge against Tracy. All in all, this is an interesting movie but I don't think it takes off the way it should have and considering the talent involved, the movie should have been much better.

Tracy plays Irish-American Frank Skeffington, an old hand re-seeking political office for one last time, with dreams of helping the slums along, and, along with his cronies, leading the victory parade on St Patrick's Day. Will he make it? 'The Last Hurrah' is a tour-de-force, with John Ford's sharp direction, and several old timers making an appearance, such as Basil Rathbone as one of Tracy's more vehement opponents. Tracy of course is as excellent as ever, and there are some nice scenes between him and Jeffrey Hunter (playing his nephew). Whether showcasing the camaraderie between Skeffington and his supporters, or giving the viewer a masterclass in acting, 'The Last Hurrah' cannot really be faulted. Even if the last half-hour of the film is a bit cloying, Tracy's last line is on target and raises a smile as the end card comes up. Incidentally, this film was made in 1958, a time when black and white films mixed with those in colour to no-one's detriment. It would be interesting to see if a similar subject would come across as well today, in colour. It makes one long for the return of black and white for some genres.

I didn't get a Harrumph out of that guy!! That's because he died of boredom. Like most of John Ford's over-rated ouvre, this movie is dull, earnest, stiff and a scrubbed-white version of America that never existed at any time except in Hollywood's imagination. It's as static as a stage play. And if you'd seen it staged in a theatre you'd be grumbling that your wife dragged you to something do boring. And then you'd be snoring. It's almost comical to think how highly regarded Ford was - and probably still is - considering none of this movies hold up to scrutiny all these decades later. I don't think he ever took a single chance in his entire career.

John Ford's version of the book, THE LAST HURRAH, is a behind the scenes look at one last election campaign for an aging mayor (Skeffington) of a town whose name is never mentioned in the film. In many ways, the film is a bit cynical as it showed the way that politicians wheel and deal and manipulate--but in this case, always for a good cause. While Skeffington is definitely not above using these questionable tactics, at the same time, he is shown as fundamentally decent and very, very sentimental--with a true love for his constituents. This is a very difficult balancing act for the film--combining gritty realism with sentimentality, but it manages to do so. In many ways, this is highly reminiscent of the real life Ford, as he was by many accounts a highly manipulative son of a,.....well, you know what I was going to say. Yet, at the same time, sentimentality abounds in his films like no other film maker. You can see it here in his liberal use of old and almost forgotten supporting stars--such as Eddie Brophy, Frank McHugh and Jane Darwell. Overall, the film is very interesting and manipulative (in a good way), as you find yourself pulling for Skeffington and feeling his pain as well--even though he is a fictional character AND a politician! The film is well worth seeing and the film is extremely well-acted and directed.

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?"

John Ford produced and directed this well-cast but overlong, cumbersome and set-bound political melodrama, adapted from Edwin O'Connor's novel by Frank Nugent. Spencer Tracy is the over-confident New England mayor who resorts to dirty tricks in order to get re-elected, while his competitors come off like rubes with little experience. Some of the intentional humors--such as a banker with a pronounced lisp or a politician's wife caught off-guard for a television interview--are awfully broad for such a stately film, and many of the supporting bits are curiously over-played (as if Ford wasn't sure what tone to aim for). Tracy's innate professionalism and sincerity as a performer makes the picture worth-watching for his admirers, yet the Columbia studio-sets look artificial and the suburban surroundings (more California than New England) are barely exploited for their satirical possibilities. Remade as a TV-movie in 1977. ** from ****

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 have been to the Etrange Festival in Paris and the director Jean-Pierre Mocky talked about this movie, he told as it's the rarest film of John Ford in France but it's his best for him. I didn't know John Ford and i never heard of this film before this festival. He gave me the envy to watch it so i did. I read a bit about John Ford and i understood as i mostly made western movies than political ones. I really wanted to watch it. The movie itself is interesting, we follow the life of a old man who wants to be a mayor another time in a town of United States of America. Many peoples don't know about how someone is elected as Mayor and we can see exactly all the stages. I highly recommend you this film if you like John Ford.