The Last Hurrah (1958)
Drama • 1h 57m
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
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About the film
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
Warner Archive Blu-ray is 4K restoration from nitrate projection elements
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: John Ford
Crystal clear, albeit with some distortion in louder areas
The 4K Blu-ray reuses the same poor mastering used on the 2006 WB Blu-ray, only with a completely unnecessary bass cut and extra noise reduction.
Even putting resolution aside, the Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray has the best video. The old Blu-ray master and earlier DVD both had massive issues with colour.
That said, picture on the 4K Blu-ray isn't perfect, with strange posterized magenta glints and some instances of DNR: https://bsky.app/profile/dagscott.bsky.social/post/3leahavqi7k2l
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set
Same master, but less bitrate starved.
The encode on the BD is preferable to the UHD. Same master, but less bitrate starved: https://x.com/SadHillDevan/status/1530057783885721607?s=20 and see caps
Director: John Ford
USA Paramount has the best video transfer with the least amount of artifacts: https://slow.pics/c/sjZ3mqF6
Olive Films Blu-ray and Eureka MoC Blu-ray are sourced from the same restoration and are both very good.
Apart from some mild attenuation, the audio is the same on all releases of the newest restoration and is relatively untampered with: https://slow.pics/c/bWF9EGuM
Director: John Ford
The audio on the Warner Archive Blu-ray is appalling. It starts to cutoff at around 6kHz to have nothing above 10kHz. The LaserDisc is much more full-frequency.
Director: John Ford
Director: Alan Clarke
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
The 88 Films 4K Blu-ray is disappointing. Indicator Blu-ray > 88 Films Blu-ray. From nicolas:
Fine master, solid HDR but very poorly encoded with strong blocking artifacts in normal areas and clipped highlights that bring Criterion’s Walkabout to mind. Their Blu-ray is slightly better overall but then again still not as good as FiM’s encode for Indicator.
Director: Vincent Sherman
Indicator Blu-ray > Kino Lorber see DVDBeaver
Indicator is using a different restoration from earlier Kino Lorber Blu-ray and it has much better contrast and slightly better grain resolution
Director: John M. Stahl
Indicator Blu-ray is encoded by FiM and likely better than Kino Lorber Blu-ray
Director: Fritz Lang
More Drama on Blu-ray
Director: Joel Coen
Shout is still very good but Arrow has the edge due to better handling of highlights and less chroma noise, comparison
All the same
Director: Todd Haynes
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
French BubbelPop 4K Blu-ray has EN audio but doesn't have EN subtitles see caps
Caveat of Kino Lorber: "Hero" segment is stretched from 4:3 to 16:9, 1999 Fox Lorber DVD features original framing
Director: Claude Lelouch
French Metropolitan 4K Blu-ray has English subtitles and is better than Criterion Blu-ray see caps and comparison
Director: John G. Avildsen
Sony boxset or 2024 VHS packaging 4K Blu-ray
Sony boxsets or 2024 VHS packaging has Dolby Vision, 2019 Sony 4K Blu-ray is HDR10 only.
Original Stereo mix: Columbia Pictures LaserDisc, Sony 4K Blu-ray (any)
5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray, Sony Blu-ray
Dolby Atmos remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray (any)
2023 Criterion 4K Blu-ray (bad compression) / Curzon 4K Blu-ray (visible chroma noise and meh compression)
Director: Roman Polanski
Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray 11/24/2026
Director: Todd Solondz
1999 R1 Trimark DVD
The Criterion 4K Blu-ray has audio that, despite being in a lossless codec, is extremely lossily compressed akin to an MP3.
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