The Last Hurrah is a film made in 1958 directed by John Ford. The film’s awards include an NBR Best Director for Ford and an NBR Best Actor for Spencer Tracey. The screenplay was based on the novel of the same name by Edwin O’Connor . The main character of Frank Skeffington (Spencer Tracey) was rumored to be loosely based on the former mayor of Boston, James Michael Curley. The film follows Skeffington as he campaigns for his last time as the mayor of a large east coast U.S city that was unnamed. Throughout the film we see the infancy of television and image-centered campaigns as well as the ethnic relations of the immigrant workers and old-money and the effect that this has on the outcome election. The cliche of good and evil is set against the moral continuum of right and wrong as Skeffington navigates through the harsh climate of wealthy, controlling elite who wish to bring him down and end his do-gooder policy making once and for all.
Skeffington is a great man, but flawed. It is apparent that he is corrupt as moral lines are blurred throughout the film. When one may assume that he is doing something kind, there is an ulterior motive at play. In the funeral scene we understand that on one hand, he is paying for the funeral of man who may have not been able to afford it. Without the draw of the mayor, not many people would have shown up.Then, the mayor, often called governor his constituents, throws a campaign rally during the wake and uses the eulogy for a stump speech. At the end of the scene, we see Skeffington short-changing the funeral director to save himself money. He is willing to exploit the dead and short the small business owner. He often breaks the rules to get what he wants. It is reminiscent of Jack Burden’s adage, “In order to make an omelet you have to crack a few eggs”.
Racial and class conflict’s are common occurrences throughout The Last Hurrah. The history of the Irish-American immigrant is one that is complex and is addressed in the film. Skeffington, a man who raised himself out of the city slums is a hard worker is able to empathize with the common men and women. He takes on the oppressive, old-money Irish elite whose families were the wealthy settlers from the Mayflower in the Cotton Mather room of a fancy city club. The reference to Mather, being a puritan minister who is known for the Salem witch trials, alludes to the oppressive nature of the bankers and other wealthy members. He goes to visit them to make it known that he will stop at nothing to get his loan approved for low income housing project. In a move of humiliation and blackmail, Skeffington makes the banker’s son fire chief (this being a position that he would surely fail at). This is one of the many examples of the clearly manipulative mode of operation that the mayor has adopted. It had gotten him far in the past, but a new agenda was at play that he was not prepared to battle.
Machine politics is also one of the film’s main themes. We learn how Skeffington and his crew run things and can clearly see how he was easily elected for multiple terms. They operate like an assembly line, each member putting their own piece of the machine together. However, tthere is a clear paradigm shift going on for campaigns. The ever loyal character of Ditto, played by Edward Brophy, is a voice of the people and a great source of comic relief. He has a distinguished manner of speaking that foreshadows Yoda from Star Wars (minus the wisdom). He gives his own assessment of Skeffington’s opponent, Kevin McKlusky and we see the birth of the “image” that we know so well in politics today. He gave a laundry list of military, church, and family achievements and qualifications. His eyes lit up when he was speaking of him. He is clearly like-able on paper. This may have not been a factor in Skeffington’s previous elections when what mattered most was who you owed and who owed you, along with what kinds of promises you could make to the people. After all, Skeffington’s son was not much to speak of and his wife was dead. Ditto didn’t even need to mention McKlusy’s policies to make the point that McKlusky was a serious threat to the final campaign of mayor Skeffington. The mayor overcomes a lot because of his wit and perceived greatness. He has more charm that a dozen leprechauns. He may be a charming, baby kissing man of the people but against a young, military, family man who has the support of the local newspaper and wealthy elite, Skeffington looks like the clear loser.
Jeffrey Hunter plays Adam Caufield, the nephew of Frank Skeffington. Caufield is a sport’s columnist at the city’s newspaper. Skeffington recruits him to work on his campaign by telling him that the most watched spectator sport in the world is politics. As a character, Caufield is another voice of the people. He is exposed to the dirty underworld of the campaign, but maintains his position as a spectator. It is not know what his contribution to the campaign is within the film, but his access to the relationship between the newspaper editor (John Carradine) and his query into Skeffington’s family life and history play an important role in perpetuating the story lines of the film.
The basis of the film being about former Boston mayor James Michael Curley was always denied by the author of the novel, Edwin O’Connor. However, the similarities are a bit uncanny. The story tells of an aging Skeffington’s last run and defeat. This was also the case for Curley who was defeated in his last run for mayor at age 74. Curley also shared a deep connection to his dead wife like Skeffington, as well as a son who didn’t amount to much. Ditto is also a character taken out of Curley’s pages in history. Curley had a member of his crew called Up-Up who shared the same ubiquitous loyalty as Ditto. He got his name from entering a room saying ‘up, up, the governor is coming, stand up!”. The city’s name is never revealed, but one can only assume that Boston is the location because of the Irish population references. O’Connor lived in Boston at one time which of course was home to Curley.
Overall, this film was well ahead of it’s time and had excellent foresight to where politics were headed at the time. Planned Parenthood was mentioned which is a topic that is still hot. Many of these talking points were emerging at the time. The New Deal created much speculation and political action on behalf of the wealthy elite. It also created opportunities for corruption on behalf of local and state politicians who could use the new contracts and funds to perpetuate their own career and accruing personal favors while doing what the public assumed was for the greater good. This film seems to be an excellent dramatization of the times, then and now.
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