ALL Photos ARE ORIGINAL FROM 1961. THEY ARE NOT MODERN REPRINTS.

***  this is a 1961 copyright Screen Gems inc version.  see text at bottom of photo ***  from an earlier film.

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SIZE IN CENTIMETRES - 25.5cm x 20.5cm or 10x8 inch.

SUBJECT - Film Press Photo, The Last Hurrah, Spencer Tracy and others.

The Last Hurrah is a 1958 American political satire film adaptation of the 1956 novel The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor. It was directed by John Ford and stars Spencer Tracy as a veteran mayor preparing for yet another election campaign. Tracy was nominated as Best Foreign Actor by BAFTA and won the Best Actor Award from the National Board of Review, which also presented Ford the award for Best Director.

The film tells the story of Frank Skeffington, a sentimental but iron-fisted Irish-American who is the powerful mayor of an unnamed New England city. As his nephew, Adam Caulfield, follows one last no-holds-barred mayoral campaign, Skeffington and his top strategist, John Gorman, use whatever means necessary to defeat a candidate backed by civic leaders such as banker Norman Cass and newspaper editor Amos Force, the mayor's dedicated foes.

The titles roll as an election campaign for a Frank Skeffington unfolds.

In "a New England city", Skeffington, a former governor, is running for a fifth term as mayor. He rose from poverty in an Irish ghetto and is skilled at using the power of his office and an enormous political machine of ward heelers to receive support from his Irish Catholic base and other demographics. Rumors of graft and abuse of power are widespread, however, and the Protestant bishop Gardner, newspaper publisher Amos Force, banker Norman Cass, and other members of the city's traditional elite whom the Irish Catholics replaced oppose Skeffington; so do the Catholic cardinal Martin Burke, Skeffington's childhood friend, and other Catholics. Skeffington's opponents support the candidacy of Kevin McCluskey, a young Catholic lawyer and war veteran with no political experience.

Adam Caulfield is a sportswriter for Force's newspaper, and Skeffington's nephew. His father-in-law, Roger Sugrue, is among those who oppose Skeffington, even though Sugrue grew up in the same tenement as Skeffington and Burke. The mayor invites Caulfield to observe in person what will be his last election, his "last hurrah", to document urban politics before radio and television fully change campaigning. Skeffington prefers old-fashioned, hands-on politics, and attends numerous rallies, luncheons, dinners, and speeches. His influence is such that when Skeffington attends an unpopular old friend's wake, hundreds rush to be present. Disgusted at how the wake becomes another political event, Caulfield leaves; one of the mayor's men explains to him, however, that Skeffington attended to attract mourners to cheer the widow, to whom Skeffington has secretly donated $1,000.

After Cass's bank turns down a loan for the city to build a housing development, Skeffington invades the exclusive Plymouth Club to confront him, Force, the bishop, and other members of the elite. The mayor threatens to publicly embarrass Cass's family by appointing his unintelligent son as fire commissioner. The banker is forced to approve the loan, but vows to contribute large amounts of money to defeat Skeffington. McCluskey's campaign arranges for a series of television advertisements, but his ineptness disappoints both the cardinal and bishop.

On election night Skeffington's men expect another victory, but McCluskey unexpectedly defeats the incumbent and his machine. As his men argue over why their usual tactics involving large amounts of "money" failed, Skeffington chastises them as if he were unaware of their actions. He confidently states on television that he will run for governor, but suffers a heart attack that night, and a large crowd comes to pay respect to the invalid. After Skeffington's last confession, the cardinal, Caulfield, Sugrue, and the mayor's men are at his bedside. When Sugrue suggests that the patient would relive his life differently, Skeffington regains consciousness enough to reply "Like Hell I would" before dying.

DATE - gems inc version from 1961 of the 1958 film.

PRESS STAMP - See reverse for any additional information.  

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