TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

secondtake Five Star Final (1931)There is one main reason to watch this—Edward G. Robinson. I almost didn't continue after the first fifteen minutes because this newspaper office drama was so filled with convenient stereotypes and one-liners it was drab.Then came the obsessive-compulsive reporter played by Robinson, Mr. Randall. He's intense, and he's not in the movie nearly enough. There is a wonderful quirky part by Boris Karloff (a few months before doing Frankenstein's monster). And a slew of decent smaller parts keep it interesting like Aline MacMahon, playing a stenographer (and in her first film role) and Marian Marsh who plays the daughter with increasing intensity right up to the highly volatile last scene.This is the heyday of the unsung Mervyn LeRoy, a director with at least two unsurpassed movies ("Three on a Match" and "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang"), not including his work on "Wizard of Oz." He has a dozen other really good films to his name, and this one survives despite some filler and a slightly functional approach to the acting and staging. This was the day when directors (and their crews) were pressed to shoot movies in a couple weeks or so, and it shows.I only wish you could see the second half of this movie alone. It gets more dramatic, and more intense (and the one painfully wooden actress dies), and it really drives home the point against yellow, abusive journalism. The first half is stale enough to turn off a lot of viewers, I'm sure, and it brings down my overall impression of the totality. Luckily, if you make it to the end, you nearly forget the forgettable beginning and will leave with a good taste in your mouth.And all the drinking in the movie? "God gives us heartache, and the devil gives us whiskey," Randall says as he downs a shot. He's seems to be standing at an ordinary bar, not an illegal speakeasy. But the year is 1931, just before the end of Prohibition. (The premiere was September 1931.) Drink is a frank and normal reality in much of the movie as people swig from bottles in their desk and meet at the bar after work, and it's an eye-opener to counteract the more extreme portrayals of alcohol in the movies. And of course, it's normal for the viewer in the theater at the time as well, part of the general feeling that the time had come to change the laws (which Roosevelt did in early 1933).So, see this if you like pre-Code films, but stick it out through the more mundane parts. It's worth it.

lugonian FIVE STAR FINAL (First National Pictures, 1931), directed by Mervyn LeRoy, reunites its director with Edward G. Robinson whose leading role under his LITTLE CAESAR (1930) awarded him overnight success. Rather than continually type-cast him in further gangster genres for the time being, the studio came up with a newspaper story based on the popular play by Louis Weitzenkorn in which Robinson enacts the role of hard working managing editor who helps his supervisors in boosting up newspaper circulation, only to live to regret it. The time: 1931; the place: New York City; the story: Bernard Hinchcliffe (Oscar Apfel), owner of the Evening Gazette, forms a staff meeting with Robert French (Purnell B. Pratt) and Brannegan (Robert Elliott) to discuss ways in boosting up circulation to compete with other newspapers. One of the ideas turns up to be doing a series on a twenty-year-old "Nancy Vorhees Murder Case," in which the woman in question was acquitted for murdering her employer, Bill Matthews. Finding her whereabouts to be on 184 West 172nd Street where she now lives her new life with husband, Michael Townsend (H.B. Warner - in a sincere portrayal), a bank cashier, and 20-year-old daughter, Jenny (Marian Marsh), now engaged to marry Philip Weeks (Anthony Bushell), son of wealthy parents (David Torrence and Evelyn Hall), Joseph Randall (Edward G. Robinson), managing editor, whose loyal secretary, Miss Taylor (Aline MacMahon), who's against of the idea in "the crucifixion of a woman," assigns Kitty Carmody (Ona Munson) from Chicago, and T. Vernon Isopod (Boris Karloff) to get the scoop. Masquerading as a clergyman, Isopod, believed to be the one from St. Gregory's Church to perform their daughter's wedding ceremony, visits with the family and encounters enough information needed to earn himself a sizable bonus. The stories not only increase circulation, but results leading to tragedy.After viewing FIVE STAR FINAL during its late show broadcast on Philadelphia's own WPHL, Channel 17's around 1975, my final analysis was, (and still is whenever presented on cable TV's Turner Classic Movies), that "this is powerful stuff!" It very well predates what might have served as a modern-day story suggested on a tabloids taken from the National Enquirer. Aside from its timely theme, somewhat weakened by Marian Marsh's theatrical outbursts during her confrontation with the heads of staff demanding an answer to a very important question, the film offers some interesting methods of camera style, beginning with the opening titles substituting echoed voices yelling, "Extra, Extra, get your Five Star Final here" for underscored music, superimposing film title over front page headlines, followed by the introduction of the faces of the actors above their names and their roles to the sounds of the newspaper machinery process. As the story progresses, there's great moments in movie making involving Nancy Vorhees seen in the center of a three way split screen process while on the telephone getting the runaround either from switchboard operators, pleading with editor, publisher and/or circulating manager to stop writing those scandalous stories about her, along with daughter Jenny's confrontation with those responsible for those stories involving her parents done in multiple camera shots covering her figure at every angle. Scenes such as these prevent FIVE STAR FINAL, with key elements mostly in the newspaper office, the Townsend apartment and a speakeasy (bar), from looking very much like a filmed stage play. FIVE STAR FINAL earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Picture for 1931-32 season. Sadly a Best Actor nomination for Edward G. Robinson was overlooked not so much for his constant hand washing in three separate instances but how he goes about "washing his hands of the whole thing." Interestingly during his very long acting career, Robinson received a single nomination. Had there been a supporting category, my vote would go to Aline MacMahon (in her movie debut) as the outspoken secretary secretly in love with her employer (Robinson). Other members of the staff include George E. Stone playing Ziggie Feinstein, a fast talking contest editor with straw hat, smoking cigars and using racial slurs while talking on the telephone; Harold Waldridge as Goldberg, the office boy; and Gladys Lloyd as Miss Edwards. Karloff, shortly before earning his reputation in horror films starting with "Frankenstein" (Universal, 1931), seems a bit miscast as the repulsive reporter with his eyes and hands more on the ladies than on his assignments, yet even more creepy disguised as a clergyman.Remade in 1936 as TWO AGAINST THE WORLD (televised as "One Fatal Hour") starring Humphrey Bogart and Beverly Roberts in the Robinson and MacMahon roles, with the setting of the newsroom changed to a radio station, became a 60 minute programmer weakened by some bad acting from one of its supporting players, namely Linda Perry, who makes Marian Marsh's climatic outbursts seem like a work of art.Never distributed to home video, FIVE STAR FINAL ranks one of the finer newspapers dramas produced in the 1930s offering no apologies for having news that's unfit to print. (*** bylines)

metalrox_2000 Hard to imagine the message of this film, since some 75 or so years later, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash trying to escape paparazzi.The film's premise is simple. The owner of a second tier newspaper wants to find some way to boost circulation. He appoints an editor played by film legend Edward G. Robinson to dig up the dirt on an old story. Twenty years ago, a woman named Nancy Voorhas shot and killed her lover.Trouble is that Voorhas has moved on, and has a brand new family. When she learns that the story is coming to public light yet again, she pleads for Joseph Randall (Played by Robinson)to drop the story. And the behest of the newspapers owner, he refuses. With all of the questions and pressure surrounding her, Voorhas commits suicide.What is left is for Joseph Randall to question if it was all worth it. Was it worth the life of Nancy Voorhas to sell extra copies of a newspaper? Robinson gives a speech at the end of the film that really was ahead of it's time, and was perhaps a foreshadowing of an age where celebrities are stalked, and people famous for a crime are forever hounded by that moment. The Joseph Randall character resigns his post, and states that he and the paper's editor played a role in the death of Nancy Voorhas, and should take the rightful blame.This is a must own film for any fan of Edward G. Robinson, and should be considered one of the landmark and greatest films of all time. It's rare to find on DVD, but if you should find it, buy it. You won't be disappointed.

kidboots This is what made Edward G. Robinson so great. He could take any role and make it unique and also from the start he could kid his "tough guy" persona (which he doesn't do here)!!!! Aline MacMahon also deserves praise. This was her first film and she was perfect in the role of Miss Taylor - Randall's "conscience". Yes, she soon started to play kindly aunts and best friends but she was vital to any film that she was in and in this film, next to Robinson, she is the highlight. Adorable Marian Marsh, who had just had a hit as Trilby in "Svengali" went on to star in several hits of the early 30s. In this film she plays the daughter Jenny Townsend and her high light is the end - "Why did you kill my Mother????"Joseph W. Randall (Edward G. Robinson) is managing editor of the Evening Gazette, the biggest scandal rag in the city. He is determined to make the paper more respectable and because of that the circulation is down. "you are trying to get above our readers... Say if I sat on a cigar box I'd be above them!!!". The paper's owner "the sultan of slop" decides to resurrect a 20 year old murder case where a young woman Nancy Voorhees killed her boss. She stood trial but was let off because of her baby. The paper wants to know what became of her. She is now married to a bank manger (H.B. Warner) who loves her dearly and stood by her. Her daughter, Jenny is about to be married to Phillip (Anthony Bushell) whose parents are in high society.Boris Karloff is really creepy as Isopod, a defrocked priest - "don't drive in taxis with him!!!" He poses as a priest interviewing the parents of the bride - in reality trying to get a scoop for the paper. Jenny's parents confide in him, thinking he really is a priest and of course Isopod takes it to the papers.The story makes front page news on the day of the wedding. Phillip's parent visit and command that the wedding be called off. Nancy, the mother, calls the paper, and by the use of a triple screen you see how her pleas go unanswered by everyone, except Miss Taylor. Her husband goes to see a friend who says he will do all in his power to stop the story but it is too late for Nancy, who has taken her own life."Why did you kill my mother!!!!". Even though Phillip has stood by her, Jenny is distraught and goes to Randall's office planning to kill him. After a huge show down that will leave you emotionally breathless a glass door is broken and Randall goes off with Miss Taylor - "if you want my opinion - take me to a speakeasy some night - I won't be working for you then"!!! - to start a clean life away from the gutter of the scandal rag that has "more huddles on this paper than on the Notre Dame team!!!!"The door that was broken was the door to the owner's office - not the door out of the office.Highly recommended.