The Last Hurrah **** (1958, Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, Dianne Foster, John Carradine, Basil Rathbone, Pat O’Brien) – Classic Movie Review 3388

Director John Ford’s well-staged, effectively acted and involving if rather cosy and cuddly 1958 political drama The Last Hurrah is the second of his three distinguished films with young star Jeffrey Hunter, following The Searchers (1956) and preceding Sergeant Rutledge (1960).

Spencer Tracy is on good form in an ideal role for him as Frank Skeffington, an old Irish-American political boss standing for the last time for re-election as mayor in Boston. There he has to beat a candidate backed by civic leaders such as a newspaper editor called Amos Force (John Carradine) and a banker named Norman Cass Sr (Basil Rathbone) to stay on for a fourth term.

Hunter gives a notable performance as Tracy’s nephew Adam Caulfield, a reporter who lovingly chronicles the old man’s ‘last hurrah’ campaign. Charles B Fitzsimons plays the candidate Kevin McCluskey, a young Catholic lawyer and war veteran with no political experience, who is supported by Skeffington’s opponents.

The Last Hurrah is a good-natured, easy-going, engaging movie, with Ford seeming a bit too relaxed, but the splendid all-star ensemble cast of old-timers and Ford associates is an enormous asset.

Also in that cast are Dianne Foster as Maeve Caulfield, Pat O’Brien as John Gorman, James Gleason as ‘Cuke’ Gillen, Donald Crisp as Cardinal Martin Burke, Ed Brophy, Jack Pennington, Ricardo Cortez, Frank McHugh, Jane Darwell, Anna Lee, Ken Curtis, O Z Whitehead, Frank Albertson, Willis Bouchey, Carleton Young, Wallace Ford and Basil Ruysdael as Bishop Gardner.

Charles Lawton Jnr’s black and white cinematography is another big plus. Frank Nugent’s screenplay is based on Edwin O’Connor’s novel, which was inspired by the story of real-life Boston Mayor James Michael Curley.

The movie was budgeted at $2.5 million but came in at $200,000 under budget. It flopped with a loss of $1.8 million. A massive, expensive New England exterior set was built round a park at Columbia Ranch in Burbank, California. Most of it burned down in 1973, but a small part survives, and can be seen in many movies and TV shows, including the opening credits for Friends.

The role of Mayor Frank Skeffington was first offered to Orson Welles, who said: ‘I was away on location and some lawyer turned it down. He told Ford that the money wasn’t right or the billing wasn’t good enough, and when I came back to town the part had gone to Tracy.’

Edwin O’Connor’s 1956 novel was a bestseller in the United States for 20 weeks. It is considered the most popular of his works, partly because of the film.

It was remade for TV in 1977 with Carroll O’Connor in Spencer Tracy’s old role.

Ford saw Tracy on Broadway and insisted on hiring him for his film debut in 1930, Up the River.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3388

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