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By
NICK ZEGARAC
"The Last Hurrah" follows
the exploits of mayor, Frank Skeffington (Spencer
Tracy). He's running for a third term but meets
with great opposition from the city council, who
don't appreciate his strong-arm tactics and
chronic meddling in their affairs. The pack of
detractors is led by Norman Cass Sr. (Basil
Rathbone), whose youthful incumbent for the post
of mayor, Kevin McCluskey (Charles B. Fitzsimmons)
seems an impossible long shot. But Skeffington is
not above dishing a little dirt of his own on the
side. He uses incriminating photos of Cass's
simpleton son, Norman Jr. (O.Z. Whitehead) to
blackmail Cass Sr. into relative submission.
Skeffington also gingerly berates the elements of
city council opposing him, including newspaper
editor, Amos Force (John Carradine) to whom
Skeffington's nephew, Adam Caufield (Jeffrey
Hunter) is an employee.
As Skeffington, Tracy is pure dynamite, delving
out equal portions of brutality and kindness in a
tour de force performance that quite easily might
be his best! There are plenty of finely wrought
cameos to go around, including Jane Darwell's
crotchety spinster, Anna Lee's subtle and tender
performance as the widow and Donald Crisp's stoic
turn as His Eminence, Cardinal Burke. This is one
heck of a good show!
Instituted into the pipeline before Columbia's
penny-pinching regime kicked in, "The Last Hurrah"
has had admirable work done on its transfer before
being minted to DVD. The grayscale is excellent
and the anamorphic widescreen version of the movie
is very nicely rendered with fine detail, solid
blacks and contrast levels. There is a definite
grain structure to this film but it will not
distract from the performances. There are no
compression related artifacts. The audio is mono
and nicely rendered.
There are, unfortunately, no extras! |
