This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Best movie ever!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

"Five Star Final" is dated but its message, about unscrupulous journalism, is not. Most of the reviewers have recapped the story, so just a few observations.First, the presentation is very stagey, and, in fact, it was adapted from a stage play for the screen by its author, who was a newspaperman at one time. This accounts for the exaggerated acting styles, as some of the performers are former stage actors. H.B. Warner was outstanding as the innocent bystander husband, while Frances Starr, the 'fallen woman' of the piece, was too theatrical. I thought Boris Karloff was a hoot as a lecherous ex-priest.Most contributors liked the last scene but I felt it was over-the-top. It was also Marian Marsh's best scene. Overall, I thought most actors in the film were excellent; acting is what does it for me because it can put an ordinary picture over, even if the screenplay is not up to snuff. But, readers, this is not an ordinary picture. It garnered a richly deserved Best Picture nomination, and even today is a tribute to Hollywood''s ability to produce superior, thought-provoking motion pictures.

The film is a pre-code talkie based upon a hit Broadway play that was written by a former newspaper managing editor. Long ago early talkies became dated (archaic sound, stagy performances) even though their messages may still be valid. So while we may dismiss the old-fashioned melodramatics of "Five Star Final," the movie message still holds true. Reckless news reporting is still a topic today, whether to improve television ratings, perk up website "hits," or advance a failing newspaper's circulation. "Evening Gazette" publisher Bernard Hinchecliffe (Oscar Apfel), concerned because of a drop in circulation (circa 300,000), approaches intense Managing Editor Randall (Edward G. Robinson) to spice up issues with more "human interest stories" (meaning seedy stuff). Circulation and advertising execs French (Purnell Pratt) and Brannagan (Robert Elliott) concur with Hinchecliffe. So Randall cracks under pressure from his bosses and rekindles a twenty-year old sensational murder case. That involved a pregnant stenographer Nancy Voorhees (Frances Starr) who shot her adulterous lover for not marrying her. Hinchecliffe wants a follow-up story as to how Nancy is living. Of course, the fact that reopening the nearly forgotten case will hurt innocent people falls off the deaf ears of the three bigwigs. Nancy, who has moved on with her life, is living a quiet existence with bank cashier husband Michael Townsend (H.B. Warner) and college student daughter Jenny (Marian Marsh). Jenny does not know that (1) her mom once murdered a man and that (2) Mr. Townsend is not her biological father. Now Jenny is marrying nice-boy Philip Weeks (Anthony Bushell), son of well-to- do parents. His adamant father is a successful machinery manufacturer; neither he nor his heinous wife wants any bad publicity.To uncover the latest information on Voorhees, Randall hires sleazy reporter Kitty "Legs" Carmody (Ona Munson) and teams her with amoral undercover reporter Isopod (Boris Karloff). Isopod was formerly kicked out of divinity school. Using some of the most sordid tactics seen in early talkies, the latter takes the unsuspecting Townsend couple into his confidence (bad mistake) and so they provide him with the information that he needs. Soon the story hits the headlines just before the planned wedding and results in more than one tragedy and a volatile finale.Robinson was good as usual, and he is better here than when snarling (and without any virtues) as a gangster in those stereotypical and violent movies that starred him. Here he is constantly washing his hands and drinking at Corcoran's speakeasy (The Volstead Act is still in force), symbolic of his guilty conscience bubbling just below the surface. Aline MacMahon, as outspoken stenographer Taylor in love with Randall, is satisfying also. So was pretty Marion Marsh ("Why did you kill my mother?"). Karloff succeeds as the repulsive reporter. Catch his signature line when he enters Randall's office: "Good e-e-evening." Known for sharp dialog, sexual innuendo, and social satire, "Five Star Final" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, but it lost to "Grand Hotel". Like many early talkies it is quite histrionic. A curious item of note involves pint-sized George E. Stone who plays contest manager Ziggie Feinstein. Now Ziggie calls up Dinky Ginsberg complaining about "a wise Arab" on 46th Street who owns a rival newsstand. "Take a couple of brass knuckles and do your stuff. Wow, the guy's a thug! Ziggie then calls City Commissioner Jim Donovan on the telephone to "lay down a route" as he will stage a one thousand-car cab race from the Bronx to the City Hall. Feinstein's reward to Donovan is a case of "cut" scotch. So much for the Volstead Act! Now Randall had earlier quipped that the race will kill a hundred people. But Ziggie is persistent, and tells Donovan that he already has the race fixed: "I'm gonna let an Irishman, a Jew, and a Wop win." Whoaaaa, now we know the flick's pre-code! And where is the protest for such a slur?

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)

The exploitativeness of tabloids is always a good subject, even back in 1931. "Five Star Final" is about a ruthless editor (Edward G. Robinson) who hounds a woman involved in a 20-year-old murder with tragic results. The film sports a good cast, including Boris Karloff, Mae Marsh, Ona Munson, Aline McMahon, and H.B. Warner.Robinson, as the editor, decides to do a series on an old murder and track down one of the people involved, Nancy Vorhees. She is now married with a daughter about to get married. The film looks at the effect it has on the lives of everyone in the family.I am not as enthusiastic about this film as some of the posters here, though I imagine it was very hard-hitting for 1931. The acting is very melodramatic, and while I appreciated the devastating effects of the story, I really thought a bad situation was made much worse by the behavior of the girl's parents at the end of the film. It wasn't until the mid-thirties that the class system in America began to disintegrate, so it's still quite evident here, with the way the young woman's future in-laws react to the scandal and Robinson's analysis of black readers.At the time the film was made, any publicity was looked down upon - today it's considered a great thing, though I don't suppose involvement in a murder would be. You might get a book deal out of it, though, and a TV movie. Nancy Voorhees today could have given the paper an exclusive interview and become a sympathetic character. But it was such a disgrace, and people seemed to have no understanding or compassion.It's hard to judge the performances because the acting style and the dialogue are so different from even a few years later. Of all of them, Aline McMahon, as the cynical secretary, comes off the best.Definitely worth seeing.