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The Last Hurrah

69 statements
12 feature instances
9 referencing feature instances

The Last Hurrah	type	TVTItem
The Last Hurrah	label	The Last Hurrah
The Last Hurrah	page	TheLastHurrah
The Last Hurrah	comment	Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })A 1956 novel by Edwin O'Connor, The Last Hurrah was adapted into a 1958 film directed by John Ford and starring Spencer Tracy.The story concerns the Irish-American mayor of a big American city that bears a suspicious resemblance to Boston, Massachusetts, who wants to run for one more term before he retires. The Mayor, named Frank Skeffington, is "corrupt" in the sense that he likes to hand out personal favors in exchange for loyalty, but overall seems to be a pretty decent person who genuinely cares for his constituents. The events are mostly seen through the eyes of Skeffington's nephew and local newspaperman, Adam Caulfield, although the novel is written in the third person.Of course, not everybody is so enamored of Skeffington's antics, and in both the film and the novel, we meet plenty of the people who want to bring him down- including Caulfield's own father-in-law and Caulfield's boss, newspaper editor Amos Force. These include even the city's Roman Catholic Cardinal, who thinks Skeffington is a walking embarrassment to Roman Catholics and to Irish-Americans.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })Hoping to stop him once and for all, some of Skeffington's foes find a candidate to run against him- a bland, boring, good-looking-but-not-too-bright young candidate named Kevin McCluskey, who is so unimpressive, despite his respectable war record, that even the Cardinal thinks he's a loser. Ordinarily, McCluskey (who bears more than a slight resemblance to a young John F. Kennedy) wouldn't stand a chance against a seasoned politician like Skeffington, but there's one thing that has changed the game this time out- television.The story, which drew some of its inspiration from real-life Boston mayor James Michael Curley, explores a lot of the issues surrounding mid-20th century urban politics in the United States. The New Deal had robbed the urban machine politicians of a lot of their traditional role in distributing public assistance, by making the Federal government responsible for it instead. Moreover, the advent of television meant that being good-looking and blandly inoffensive became more important than being a skillful politician who could command peoples' loyalty.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_3'); })
The Last Hurrah	fetched	2021-06-06T23:24:47Z
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The Last Hurrah	processingComment	Dropped link to LoveableRogue: Not a Feature - IGNORE
The Last Hurrah	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Last Hurrah / int_30ed4f7d	type	Sleazy Politician
The Last Hurrah / int_30ed4f7d	comment	Sleazy Politician: Subverted somewhat, in that Skeffington uses flagrant bribery to stay in power and hands out jobs to his political cronies, but is beloved by his constituents, who see these same actions in a much more positive light.
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The Last Hurrah / int_3cebf628	type	Irishman and a Jew
The Last Hurrah / int_3cebf628	comment	Irishman and a Jew: Skeffington's Jewish assistant Sam asks the mayor to do the drawing at a raffle for the Jewish War Veterans' Committee. Skeffington agrees to show up for the drawing and even buy a book of tickets, but wisely refuses to do the drawing himself.
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The Last Hurrah / int_61356a74	type	Almost Dead Guy
The Last Hurrah / int_61356a74	comment	Almost Dead Guy: See Final Speech below.
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The Last Hurrah / int_729c69f3	type	Politically Incorrect Villain
The Last Hurrah / int_729c69f3	comment	Politically Incorrect Villain: Amos Force, though it is important to note that the novel was written before political correctness became widespread, so it is probably not an example of the author trying to manipulate the audience, but just a more-or-less accurate and fairly dispassionate representation of a kind of bigotry that actually existed at the time.
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The Last Hurrah / int_8042e814	type	Actually Pretty Funny
The Last Hurrah / int_8042e814	comment	Actually Pretty Funny: The real-life basis for Skeffington, mayor James Michael Curley, when asked what his favorite part of the book was, supposedly replied, "The part where I die!"
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The Last Hurrah / int_87629455	type	No Communities Were Harmed
The Last Hurrah / int_87629455	comment	No Communities Were Harmed: The city remains unnamed throughout, but it strongly resembles Boston, Massachusetts.
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The Last Hurrah / int_96e5792c	type	Moral Guardians
The Last Hurrah / int_96e5792c	comment	Moral Guardians: Roger Sugrue is described as a "Professional Catholic" in the novel. An upwardly-mobile, Harvard-educated Roman Catholic, Sugrue makes it his personal business to decide what is and is not acceptable public behavior for other Roman Catholics, and pesters the Cardinal relentlessly about these things. While the Cardinal generally agrees with Sugrue's assessment of such situations, he nonetheless finds Sugrue to be an obnoxious ass in person.
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The Last Hurrah / int_9f2cad9a	type	Landslide Election
The Last Hurrah / int_9f2cad9a	comment	Landslide Election: In the film, at least, Skeffington loses by a wide margin.
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The Last Hurrah / int_a0d9c2f3	type	Final Speech
The Last Hurrah / int_a0d9c2f3	comment	Final Speech: In the film, Skeffington more-or-less reconciles with the Cardinal on his deathbed. As Skeffington fades off into death, Roger Sugrue (Adam Caulfield's father-in-law and self-appointed arbiter of acceptable Roman Catholic behavior) suggests that Skeffington would do everything differently, if he had it to do over again. Skeffington then summons the energy to say one last thing before he dies: "Like hell I would!"
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The Last Hurrah / int_a8a5e4ed	type	Christianity Is Catholic
The Last Hurrah / int_a8a5e4ed	comment	Christianity Is Catholic: Averted. Although most of the important characters are Irish-American Catholics, there are a handful of Anglo-Saxon Protestants (including one clergyman), who form the main core of opposition to Skeffington.
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The Last Hurrah / int_f26d5e66	type	Brainless Beauty
The Last Hurrah / int_f26d5e66	comment	Brainless Beauty: Kevin McCluskey; when the Cardinal sees him on TV, he asks his assistant "Is this the educated young laity I've been hearing so much about?" in a disgusted tone.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Last Hurrah	hasFeature	Election Day Episode / int_dad8a98e
The Last Hurrah	hasFeature	Irishman and a Jew / int_dad8a98e
The Last Hurrah	hasFeature	Ivy League for Everyone / int_dad8a98e
The Last Hurrah	hasFeature	Landslide Election / int_dad8a98e
The Last Hurrah	hasFeature	Lovable Rogue / int_dad8a98e
The Last Hurrah	hasFeature	Moral Guardians / int_dad8a98e
The Last Hurrah	hasFeature	No Communities Were Harmed / int_dad8a98e
The Last Hurrah	hasFeature	Sleazy Politician / int_dad8a98e
The Last Hurrah	hasFeature	The Last Title / int_dad8a98e

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