Frank Skeffington ist ein alter irisch-amerikanischer Parteichef, der sich zum letzten Mal zur Wiederwahl als Bürgermeister einer Stadt in den USA stellt.Frank Skeffington ist ein alter irisch-amerikanischer Parteichef, der sich zum letzten Mal zur Wiederwahl als Bürgermeister einer Stadt in den USA stellt.Frank Skeffington ist ein alter irisch-amerikanischer Parteichef, der sich zum letzten Mal zur Wiederwahl als Bürgermeister einer Stadt in den USA stellt.
- Regie
- Drehbuch
- Hauptbesetzung
- Nominiert für 1 BAFTA Award
- 3 Gewinne & 1 Nominierung insgesamt
Empfohlene Bewertungen
1) It is very unfocused. What is its point? Is it an in-depth political expose, a character study, or a melodrama? These categories are not mutually exclusive, but you wouldn't know that by watching The Last Hurrah. It goes from one of them to the next without ever mixing two. Shouldn't the role and relationship of Adam, the mayor's nephew, be more clearly defined? 2) all supporting characters, every single one of them, is a sit-com level caricature from Ditto to Junior (and especially Ditto and Junior). There are clear good guys, and clear bad guys. They might as well all be wearing black or white ten gallon hats so that we can discern who is who more quickly.
Really, there is only one pro, but, to be sure, this pro makes the movie totally worth watching: Spencer Tracy. Man, is he great in this film. His character, Frank Skeffington, is really not much less of a caricature than the rest of them, but Tracy imbues him with so much life and personality that he becomes very endearing. To judge only by the script, I should not have cared what was going on at all, yet Tracy made me care, deeply, at times. Up until tonight, I always bragged in a jokey manner that, despite my having seen over 1,200 films, films from every decade, every genre, every period of America films, not to mention a plethora of foreign ones, I had never, ever seen a movie with Spencer Tracy. Maybe it wasn't so much a brag as it was an oddity. Now I can safely brag that I have seen him act, and that he was one of the greatest. I cannot afford to put him off any longer, one who so amazingly saved such a train wreck of a movie, The Last Hurrah. 7/10.
The film is more drama and comedy than history. Yet, men like James Michael Curley, Richard J. Daley, and David L. Lawrence combined ambition for power with a desire to achieve municipal progress as they saw it. They used their understanding of human nature and the ignorance of the body politic effectively. Skeffington shows how. Today, their successors use other methods for similar purpose.
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.
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.
But, as far as this movie is concerned, that's neither here nor there. Spencer Tracy is outstanding as the mayor (in my opinion, only James Stewart was a better actor among the leading men of the Hollywood studio era) and the supporting players are superb, notably Pat O'Brien, Donald Crisp, Basil Rathbone, John Carradine, Jane Darwell and especially O.Z. Whitehead, who is brilliantly cast in a small role as the featherbrained son of a crusty Yankee banker. Also noteworthy are the usual patriotic and sentimental touches of director-producer John Ford.
What ever your political opinions may be, this is an outstanding look at old-time politics as it begins to give way to the era of mass media.
Wusstest du schon
- WissenswertesEarly in the film one of Skeffington's advisors says of another candidate 'an Arab would have a better chance of becoming Mayor of Tel Aviv', and Skeffington says 'remember the recent Lord Mayor of Dublin'. This is a reference to the 1956 election of Robert Briscoe, the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin. He was the son of Lithuanian-Jewish immigrants and after the second World War acted as a special advisor to Menachem Begin in the transformation of Irgun from a paramilitary group into a political movement and later into the Likud party.
- PatzerLike many films made in the L.A. area, the trees don't match the season. In the scene where the crowd has gathered outside Skeffington's home the morning after his election night heart attack, the tree on his front lawn is full of green leaves. In early November in New England the leaves should have changed color and even fallen off the tree.
- Zitate
Roger Sugrue: [standing by Skeffington's bed] Well, at least he made his peace with God. There's one thing we all can be sure of - if he had it to do over again, there's no doubt in the world he would do it very, very differently.
Mayor Frank Skeffington: [opening his eyes] Like hell I would.
- VerbindungenFeatured in Directed by John Ford (1971)
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Details
Box Office
- Budget
- 2.300.000 $ (geschätzt)
- Laufzeit2 Stunden 1 Minute
- Farbe