"The Last Clear Chance" was an American television film broadcast on March 6, 1958, as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90. A courtroom drama, it features a strong performance by Paul Muni as an attorney defending his son in disbarment proceedings. Muni was nominated for both an Emmy Award and a Sylvania Award for his performance.
Plot
An attorney, Scott Arlen, represents a girl, Peggy Maylin, accused of murder trial. She gives him a gun, and he decides not to turn it over to the court or the prosecutor. After winning the girl's acquittal, Arlen turns over the gun and faces disbarment. Sam Arlen is an aging lawyer who comes out of retirement to defend his son in the disbarment proceeding.
In The New York Times, Jack Gould praised Paul Muni's for a "commanding" and "extremely powerful" performance. However, he found the production to be "rambling and disorganized."[1]
United Press television critic William Ewald was effusive in his praise for Muni's performance, calling it intelligent, authoritative, excessive but "all very right", a "calisthenic grab bag," and "a performance with salt and bite that dripped with brine."[2]
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