Last Hurrah, The (1958)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Spencer Tracy plays a Mayor who is running for office for perhaps the last time and he invites his nephew (Jeffrey Hunter) along to see how a campaign is run. I must admit that I was pretty letdown with this film considering the talent involved. When you have Ford directing actors such as Tracy and Hunter then I expected a lot more than what was actually delivered. The supporting cast contains brilliant actors such as John Carradine, Basil Rathbone, Dianne Foster, Pat O'Brien, Wallace Ford, Donald Crisp, Ricardo Cortez and Frank McHugh. There are signs a greatness throughout this film but they're often followed up with overly talky scenes that just drag on for no reason at all. Ford is trying to make all sorts of points about the political game but when he speaks these points he just keeps on and on. There's a scene inside a funeral that has political motivations behind it and this scene is the perfect example of a message being beaten to death and dragged down into boredom. There are several great sequences including one where Tracy blackmails Rathbone into doing some good for the city and there's another great scene when Tracy busts in on some bank managers who are using race to work against him. Tracy is good in his role but I don't think this is among his best performances. Hunter delivers a nice performance as well but I found his role to be rather underwritten. I think Carradine steals the film as the racist newspaper editor who holds a grudge against Tracy. All in all, this is an interesting movie but I don't think it takes off the way it should have and considering the talent involved, the movie should have been much better.
