365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 186 - Election Day Double Feature: The Last Hurrah

The title The Last Hurrah has a double meaning. On the one hand it is a look at the final campaign of a long time politician and on the other it also stands for the end of an era when elections were won by backroom political bosses and old fashioned campaigning. 

Spencer Tracy stars as Frank Skeffington a four term Irish-Catholic Mayor in an unnamed New England (Boston) city. He is making his fifth and final to be re-elected. He is surrounded by a political machine of ward bosses and loyalists who have supported him for many years. But he is up against political enemies in the media  and the city's financial sector. They have grown tired of Skeffington's strong arms ways. There is resentment that the city is represented and run by members of it's "working class" while the upper class have been marginalized. 

Frank campaigns the only way he knows how. through influence peddling and practically going door to door. The new candidate is packaged and sold via the new invention of television. 

The movie is loosely based on the life of politician James Curley and is adapted from the best selling book by Edwin O'Connor.

The film is an entertaining, solid political drama directed by John Ford. Tracy gives one of his best performances as the mayor who has many underlings, but seemingly no friends. His own son shows very little interest in his life. he ends up turning to his nephew played by Jeffrey Hunter for support. The film has some great familiar faces including pat O'Brien, John Carradine, Basil Rathbone and Donald Crisp. 

At the Movie House rating ***1/2 stars