Plot

Frank Skeffington is an old Irish-American political boss, running for re-election as mayor of a U.S. town for the last time.

In a New England town, aging Frank Skeffington, descended from poor Irish immigrants, is conducting his fifth and last political campaign for Mayor - he thus far being undefeated - before he serves his last term leading into retirement from politics, he surrounded by his longtime campaign team. Despite his success rate largely from support of the Irish immigrant population in seeing one of their own doing good, Frank does have his detractors, not only the blue bloods of the town, but those that see him operating under an old boys network of doing favors for friends and every one of his actions having a self-serving political motivation. And there are others, including Frank's son, Frank Skeffington, Jr., who couldn't care less about politics, Jr. absorbed with his own fun-loving existence. A microcosm of the political division can be seen by the Caulfield household: non-political Adam Caulfield, a sportswriter for the Morning News newspaper and Frank's nephew, supports his uncle in liking him both as a man and uncle, while Adam's wife, Maeve Caulfield, has the same impression of Frank as her wealthy father, Roger Sugrue, who grew up in the same working class neighborhood as Frank and who sees Frank working on graft. Adam's boss, the Morning News Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Amos Force, has always opposed Frank, and mounts a concerted campaign for those in the anti-Frank camp to rally around his strongest opponent, political neophyte Kevin McCluskey, despite McCluskey's inexperience showing at every turn. As he can see the times changing in terms of the way political campaigns are run and covered with the onset of more electronic media such as television and radio playing a bigger part, Frank brings in Adam as an observer journalist of his campaign to witness the changing times, what Frank sees as his last hurrah before his means of operation to win elections will no longer suffice.—Huggo

An aging politician tries to get re-elected one last time in the changing world of the 1950s when TV started to play a bigger part in politics. Based loosely on the career of multi-term Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, this film examines the good and evil inherent in politics and all the things that go into an election. Tracy's uphill battle to stay in office is set against the political machinery that preyed on ethnic hatred and old-time money.—Ed Lorusso