The Last Hurrah (1958)
Drama • 1h 57m
Overview
In a changing world where television has become the main source of information, Adam Caulfield, a young sports journalist, witnesses how his uncle, Frank Skeffington, a veteran and honest politician, mayor of a New England town, tries to be reelected while bankers and captains of industry conspire in the shadows to place a weak and manageable candidate in the city hall.
Director: John Ford
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, Dianne Foster, Pat O'Brien, Basil Rathbone, Donald Crisp, James Gleason, Edward Brophy, John Carradine, Willis Bouchey, Basil Ruysdael, Ricardo Cortez, Wallace Ford, Frank McHugh, Carleton Young, Frank Albertson, Bob Sweeney, William Leslie, Anna Lee, Ken Curtis, Jane Darwell, O.Z. Whitehead, Arthur Walsh, Charles B. Fitzsimons, James Flavin, William Forrest, Jack Pennick, Helen Westcott, Phil Adams, Alex Akimoff, Fred Aldrich, Richard Alexander, Leon Alton, Don Anderson, Walter Bacon, Frank Baker, Bobette Bentley, Steve Benton, Gail Bonney, Danny Borzage, Paul Bradley, Chet Brandenburg, Rand Brooks, George Bruggeman, John Bryant, James J. Casino, Jack Chefe, Dick Cherney, George Chester, Noble 'Kid' Chissell, Charles Cirillo, Richard Dale Clark, Ruth Clifford, Edmund Cobb, Bud Cokes, Russell Custer, Hal K. Dawson, Richard Deacon, John Deauville, Jack Deery, George DeNormand, Joe Devlin, James Dime, Mike Donovan, Clint Dorrington, Mimi Doyle, Tommy Earwood, Richard Elmore, Eddie Fetherston, Duke Fishman, George Ford, Joseph Forte, Raoul Freeman, Helen Gereghty, Kenneth Gibson, James Gonzalez, Sam Harris, Ed Haskett, Jack Henderson, William Henry, Chuck Hicks, Stuart Holmes, Shep Houghton, Chuck Howard, William Hudson, Charles Anthony Hughes, Thomas E. Jackson, William Janssen, Michael Jeffers, Roy Jenson, Rolan Jones, Richard Keene, Fred Kennedy, Colin Kenny, Ann Kunde, Joseph La Cava, Webster Lagrange, Harry Lauter, Johnny Leone, Robert Levin, Robert Locke Lorraine, Edmund Lowe, Wilbur Mack, Hank Mann, Eve March, Frank Marlowe, Mae Marsh, Philo McCullough, Joe McGuinn, Frank McLure, Edward McNally, Paul McVey, Harold Miller, Ernesto Molinari, Charles Morton, Sol Murgi, Jimmy Murphy, Forbes Murray, George Nardelli, Bill Neff, William H. O'Brien, Brian O'Hara, Joe Palma, Emma Palmese, Harvey Parry, Bob Perry, Murray Pollack, Paul Power, Fred Rapport, Edward Rickard, Clete Roberts, Molly Roden, Victor Romito, John Roy, Buck Russell, Dick Ryan, Cosmo Sardo, Frank J. Scannell, Bernard Sell, Jordan Shelley, Charles Sherlock, Carl Sklover, Stephen Soldi, George Spaulding, Bert Spencer, Ted Stanhope, Anna Stein, Harry Strang, Brick Sullivan, Charles Sullivan, Frank Sully, Julius Tannen, Harry Tenbrook, Jack Tornek, Charles Trowbridge, Phil Tully, Harry Tyler, Ruth Warren, James Waters, Chalky Williams, Bert Stevens
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Paramount 4K Blu-ray but poor encode, no alternatives though
Paramount 4K Blu-ray but poor encode, no alternatives though
Director: John Ford
Warner Archive Blu-ray new restoration by Library of Congress and the Film Foundation
Director: John Ford
Warner Archive Blu-ray new restoration by Library of Congress and the Film Foundation
Director: John Ford
Warner Archive Blu-ray 4K restoration from original Technicolor negatives
Director: John Ford
Warner Archive Blu-ray 4K restoration from original Technicolor negatives
Directors: Francis Ford & John Ford
Undercrank Blu-ray, 2K scan of Eye's 35mm preservation print
Directors: Francis Ford & John Ford
Undercrank Blu-ray, 2K scan of Eye's 35mm preservation print
Directors: Henry Hathaway & John Ford & George Marshall
Warner Bros Blu-ray 2-Disc version (Digibook) for the Smilebox presentation
Warner Bros Blu-ray 2-Disc version (Digibook) for the Smilebox presentation
Directors: Henry Hathaway & John Ford & George Marshall
Warner Bros Blu-ray 2-Disc version (Digibook) for the Smilebox presentation
Warner Bros Blu-ray 2-Disc version (Digibook) for the Smilebox presentation
Director: John Ford
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: John Ford
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: Albert Brooks
Director: Albert Brooks
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Director: Josef von Sternberg
Director: James Bridges
Director: James Bridges
Director: Bill Forsyth
Director: Bill Forsyth
Director: Stuart Heisler
Director: Stuart Heisler
Director: Jean Rollin
Director: Jean Rollin
Director: David Hemmings
Director: David Hemmings
More Drama on Blu-ray
Director: Andrzej Wajda
Director: Andrzej Wajda
Director: Rolf de Heer
Director: Rolf de Heer
Director: Orson Welles
MoC 4K Blu-ray and Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray are similar
Director: Orson Welles
MoC 4K Blu-ray and Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray are similar
Director: Jean Renoir
The Criterion 4K Blu-ray has marginally better detail and grain structure than ESC 4K Blu-ray
The ESC France 4K Blu-ray is an SDR grade erroneously presented in HDR, but if your player can force the HDR into SDR it looks very good.
Director: Jean Renoir
The Criterion 4K Blu-ray has marginally better detail and grain structure than ESC 4K Blu-ray
The ESC France 4K Blu-ray is an SDR grade erroneously presented in HDR, but if your player can force the HDR into SDR it looks very good.
Director: Robert Wise
Disney 4K Blu-ray, see caps https://slow.pics/c/hE3HUCdj
Disney 4K Atmos is great, a reference quality track. It's a very slight remix (music seems to be from a better source), but it's completely seamless and faithful to the original, better fidelity than anything since the 1994 30th Anniversary Edition LaserDisc.
All DVDs (and 2010 Blu-ray) sound far worse than the 4K Blu-ray/LaserDisc and have various missing sound cues.
Director: Robert Wise
Disney 4K Blu-ray, see caps https://slow.pics/c/hE3HUCdj
Disney 4K Atmos is great, a reference quality track. It's a very slight remix (music seems to be from a better source), but it's completely seamless and faithful to the original, better fidelity than anything since the 1994 30th Anniversary Edition LaserDisc.
All DVDs (and 2010 Blu-ray) sound far worse than the 4K Blu-ray/LaserDisc and have various missing sound cues.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
BFI 4K Blu-ray has excellent master and grade, no DNR and tasteful HDR
Restored original mono mix: Toho Japan 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored original mono: 2014 BFI Blu-ray
BFI 4K Blu-ray has OG Perspecta (in 5.1 container) and a stereo downmix of it; no original mono.
The unrestored track on BFI's earlier release appears to be an almost entirely unmanipulated transfer of the original mix. It suffers from a distracting low-frequency hum. The 4K restoration comes with a restored track, which appears to be the same transfer, but which appears to be cleaned up with a moderate amount of noise reduction and some EQ, nicely opening up the high-end, and which is likely to be preferable to most listeners. All earlier releases sound poor.
Perspecta isn't a discrete surround format, instead only relying on manipulating volume and panning of the mono track across L/C/R channels, based on embedded control tones. As such, even the Perspecta track is technically just the mono mix, though the omission of the proper mono on BFI's 4K is still unfortunate.
Director: Akira Kurosawa
BFI 4K Blu-ray has excellent master and grade, no DNR and tasteful HDR
Restored original mono mix: Toho Japan 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored original mono: 2014 BFI Blu-ray
BFI 4K Blu-ray has OG Perspecta (in 5.1 container) and a stereo downmix of it; no original mono.
The unrestored track on BFI's earlier release appears to be an almost entirely unmanipulated transfer of the original mix. It suffers from a distracting low-frequency hum. The 4K restoration comes with a restored track, which appears to be the same transfer, but which appears to be cleaned up with a moderate amount of noise reduction and some EQ, nicely opening up the high-end, and which is likely to be preferable to most listeners. All earlier releases sound poor.
Perspecta isn't a discrete surround format, instead only relying on manipulating volume and panning of the mono track across L/C/R channels, based on embedded control tones. As such, even the Perspecta track is technically just the mono mix, though the omission of the proper mono on BFI's 4K is still unfortunate.
Director: Vincent Ward
Director: Vincent Ward
Director: Sidney Lumet
2026 Criterion 4K Blu-ray
2011 Criterion Blu-ray is the best. Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has heavily filtered audio
Director: Sidney Lumet
2026 Criterion 4K Blu-ray
2011 Criterion Blu-ray is the best. Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray has heavily filtered audio
International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray
International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray > US Paramount 4K Blu-ray for the US Cut.
International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray, is significantly better than the US Paramount 4K Blu-ray (even with FEL Baked in and Dolby Vision), with more grain retention and detail
SDR Comparisons: International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray vs US Paramount 4K Blu-ray: https://slow.pics/c/TEPHtKjl
HDR Comparisons: International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray vs US Paramount 4K Blu-ray: https://slow.pics/c/hIFe11Hx
Comparisons in SDR using L8 Trim from CM v4.0 (both UHDs can use CM v4.0): Remux vs USA UHD: https://slow.pics/c/mkrhVtpl
The International Cut, which contains alternate, more violent shots in the final act, hasn't been released on home video to date.
International Cut contains alternate, more violent shots in the final act.
International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray
International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray > US Paramount 4K Blu-ray for the US Cut.
International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray, is significantly better than the US Paramount 4K Blu-ray (even with FEL Baked in and Dolby Vision), with more grain retention and detail
SDR Comparisons: International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray vs US Paramount 4K Blu-ray: https://slow.pics/c/TEPHtKjl
HDR Comparisons: International Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray vs US Paramount 4K Blu-ray: https://slow.pics/c/hIFe11Hx
Comparisons in SDR using L8 Trim from CM v4.0 (both UHDs can use CM v4.0): Remux vs USA UHD: https://slow.pics/c/mkrhVtpl
The International Cut, which contains alternate, more violent shots in the final act, hasn't been released on home video to date.
International Cut contains alternate, more violent shots in the final act.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Kino Lorber 4k resto
The audio on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray comes from a better source than the various DVDs and the previous HD version on streaming. This audio is relatively untampered with, and is likely the best available source as no laserdisc was ever issued.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Kino Lorber 4k resto
The audio on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray comes from a better source than the various DVDs and the previous HD version on streaming. This audio is relatively untampered with, and is likely the best available source as no laserdisc was ever issued.
Edit History
9/14/2025
