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Five Star Final

  • 1931
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 29m
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
2.7K
YOUR RATING
Five Star Final (1931)
Trailer for this newspaper drama
Play trailer1:55
2 Videos
61 Photos
Workplace DramaCrimeDrama

The City Editor of a sleazy tabloid goes against his own journalistic ethics to resurrect a twenty year old murder case - with tragic results.The City Editor of a sleazy tabloid goes against his own journalistic ethics to resurrect a twenty year old murder case - with tragic results.The City Editor of a sleazy tabloid goes against his own journalistic ethics to resurrect a twenty year old murder case - with tragic results.

  • Director
    • Mervyn LeRoy
  • Writers
    • Louis Weitzenkorn
    • Byron Morgan
    • Robert Lord
  • Stars
    • Edward G. Robinson
    • Marian Marsh
    • H.B. Warner
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.3/10
    2.7K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Mervyn LeRoy
    • Writers
      • Louis Weitzenkorn
      • Byron Morgan
      • Robert Lord
    • Stars
      • Edward G. Robinson
      • Marian Marsh
      • H.B. Warner
    • 66User reviews
    • 38Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 3 wins & 1 nomination total

    Videos2

    Five Star Final
    Trailer 1:55
    Five Star Final
    Five Star Final Clip
    Clip 2:59
    Five Star Final Clip
    Five Star Final Clip
    Clip 2:59
    Five Star Final Clip

    Photos61

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    Top cast25

    Edit
    Edward G. Robinson
    Edward G. Robinson
    • Jos. W. Randall
    Marian Marsh
    Marian Marsh
    • Jenny Townsend
    H.B. Warner
    H.B. Warner
    • Michael Townsend
    Anthony Bushell
    Anthony Bushell
    • Phillip Weeks
    George E. Stone
    George E. Stone
    • Ziggie Feinstein
    Frances Starr
    Frances Starr
    • Nancy (Voorhees) Townsend
    Ona Munson
    Ona Munson
    • Kitty Carmody
    Boris Karloff
    Boris Karloff
    • T. Vernon Isopod
    Aline MacMahon
    Aline MacMahon
    • Miss Taylor
    Oscar Apfel
    Oscar Apfel
    • Bernard Hinchecliffe
    Purnell Pratt
    Purnell Pratt
    • Robert French
    Robert Elliott
    Robert Elliott
    • R.J. Brannegan
    James P. Burtis
    James P. Burtis
    • Reporter
    • (uncredited)
    Richard Carlyle
    • First Newstand Proprietor
    • (uncredited)
    Frank Darien
    Frank Darien
    • Schwartz
    • (uncredited)
    James Donlan
    James Donlan
    • Reporter in Speakeasy
    • (uncredited)
    Evelyn Hall
    Evelyn Hall
    • Isobel Weeks
    • (uncredited)
    Gladys Lloyd
    Gladys Lloyd
    • Miss Edwards
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Mervyn LeRoy
    • Writers
      • Louis Weitzenkorn
      • Byron Morgan
      • Robert Lord
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews66

    7.32.6K
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    Featured reviews

    8TheLittleSongbird

    Journalism's dark side

    Have for some time regarded Edward G. Robinson very highly as an actor, he was often a scene stealer in support and he had more than enough presence when he was a lead. Seeing Boris Karloff in a prolific year for him and Aline MacMahon in her first film added to the interest. As well as that it was directed by Mervyn LeRoy, who also directed 'Random Harvest' (a particularly wonderful film of his). Any film that explores the dark side of journalism should be applauded.

    'Five Star Final' managed to be a very well done and powerful film. Well made, very well written and strongly acted, on the most part regarding the acting with a couple of exceptions. Anybody that loves Robinson, Karloff and LeRoy will be more than delighted. The subject is a bold one and well worth addressing, it was very relevant at the time and is also very relevant now. Even more so now and even worse than back then, scarily so.

    The film is not perfect by all means. Some of the acting is patchy. Nancy is a dull character and Frances Starr has very little warmth and presence in the part. Ona Munson's character annoyed me to no end and Munson overdoes it.

    Occasionally 'Five Star Final' is a little corny, but thankfully those moments are hardly any.

    It is stylishly filmed and has a good amount of atmosphere and grit. The decision to not use music was a good one, meaning that in my view the dialogue and subject resonates more without worrying about potential intrusiveness. There are some clever use of sound effects, the sound of machines being almost eerie. LeRoy really allows the drama to remain gripping throughout the entire film and the film is leanly and intelligently scripted.

    Moreover, the story is very absorbing. Personally don't think it has dated at all and absolutely agree with everybody that says that its theme is still relevant today (as said already one could say that it is more so today and to a degree that is enough to shock, can't believe that there are people still that believe everything they believe in the press). What is shown here, meaning the dark side of journalism, is very disarming and honest with the film being quite uncompromising which helps make it all the more powerful.

    Robinson is truly excellent in the lead role and nothing short of magnetic. Matched more than ideally by shifty Karloff, an extremely impressive debuting MacMahon and heartfelt HB Warner. Marian Marsh also gives a brave performance and is very moving in her final scene which is agreed one of the dramatic highlights.

    To conclude, very well done. 8/10
    8Crow-9

    A well told story. One of Edgar G. Robinson's best films.

    The story holds true just as much today as it did when it was made. Powerful newspapers will stop at nothing, it seems, in the name of circulation. Scandal sells. The best scene in the whole movie is when Jenny confronts each of the three protagonists with the question, "Why did you kill my mother?". Randall, realizing what he has caused to happen, attempts to kill the story, then turns in his resignation. (Or maybe he realized just how much power he held in his hands and wanted no more of it.) This movie shows that the pen, indeed, is mightier than the sword.
    7Bunuel1976

    Five Star Final (1931) ***

    A powerful, uncompromising early look at "Yellow Journalism" which made a great enough impact at the time to be counted among the year's best films at the Academy Awards – to say nothing of the rush of similar pictures which followed in its wake, culminating in Howard Hawks' masterpiece, HIS GIRL Friday (1940).

    Edward G. Robinson is re-united here with the director of LITTLE CAESAR (1930), the film that made him a star, and delivers another great performance which is sufficiently nuanced to anchor the somewhat melodramatic plot in reality. Supporting him, among many others, are Aline MacMahon as his long-suffering secretary who's secretly in love with him and Boris Karloff in a marvelous turn as the most shamelessly hypocritical reporter on the newspaper's payroll. The cynical, rapid-fire dialogue gives it an edge and an authenticity that's almost impossible to recapture these days and, needless to say, became one of the key elements in this type of film.

    The film features a number of good scenes but the highlights would have to be: the split-screen technique introduced to shut out the former convict, who is now being hounded by "The Gazette", from having a conversation with either the owner of the paper or its news editor (Robinson); the lengthy and heart-breaking scene in which the female ex-convict's husband (played by the ever-reliable H.B. Warner) bids farewell to their daughter and her soon-to-be husband without letting them in on the fact that the woman has committed suicide and that he intends to join her soon after; the hysterical tirade at the end by the daughter when she finally confronts the men who have destroyed her life, a brave tour-de-force moment for Marian Marsh (familiar to horror aficionados from SVENGALI [1931], THE MAD GENIUS [1931] and THE BLACK ROOM [1935]) who had so far only rather blandly served the romantic interest of the plot; the final shot of the picture, with the latest issue of "The Gazette" being swept into the gutter by street-cleaners along with the rest of the garbage, thus leaving no doubt whatsoever as to where the film-makers' true sentiments lay.
    whpratt1

    KARLOFF IS AN EXPELLED DIVINITY STUDENT!

    Viewed this film years ago on a late late T.V. show and was able to tape it. The author of the original play, Louis Weitzenkorn, was once the managing editor of the New York Evening Graphic, a yellow journalism tabloid which gave him the idea for the main character of Hinchecliffe former publisher of the New York Mirror. The film was remade as Two Against the World in 1936. Bernard Hinchecliffe(Oscar Apfel) owner of the notorious scandal sheet, the GAZETTE and his managing editor, Joseph Randall(Edward G. Robinson), is ordered to boost the circulation by doing a story on the Vorhees case. Years ago, Nancy Vorhees(Francis Starr) murdered the man who betrayed her. Randall seeks the services of T. Vernon Isopod (Boris Karloff), an expelled divinity student. Isopod disguises himself as a clergyman and enters the Townsend home, gaining their confidence. Ona Munson, veteran film actress of the 1930's and 1940's along with Boris Karloff fullfil their newspaper duties perfectly. Five Star Final is a great film classic because of the great acting of Edward G. Robinson.
    8lastliberal

    Why did you kill my mother?

    This Oscar-nominated film (Best Picture) shows the dark side of journalism as a paper delves into the past of a woman (Frances Starr) who was impregnated by her boss and acquitted of his murder.

    Edward G. Robinson (Little Caesar) is a newspaper editor that is interested in boosting circulation and is not concerned with the lives he destroys in the process. He goes after Nancy Voorhees (Starr), who is now Nancy (Voorhees) Townsend and is not concerned that she has not told her daughter (the doll-faced Marian Marsh), who is now about to me married, about her past.

    Robinson was absolutely brilliant in the role and ably assisted by Boris Karloff and Oscar-nominated actress (Dragon Seed) Aline MacMahon in her first film.

    A classic showing the seedy side of journalism.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      One of Edward G. Robinson's favorite films. In Robinson's autobiography, he says: "I loved Randall because he wasn't a gangster. I suspect he was conceived as an Anglo-Saxon. To look at me nobody would believe it, but I enjoyed doing him. He made sense, and thus I'm able to say that Five Star Final is one of my favorite films."
    • Goofs
      When Nancy Voorhees Townsend is at the newsstand and picks up the Evening Gazette with her photo from 20 years ago beside the photo of the man she killed back then on the front page, the headline above the two photos is "Nancy Voorhees Story". But after she walks away with it to pay for it, another copy with the same two photos on the front is shown at the newsstand, but with the headline "2 Die in Subway Cave-in". After she pays for the one in her hand, that's loosely folded in half, part of the headline on it can be seen, and it isn't "Nancy Voorhees Story" as it had been - it's now the "2 Die in Subway Cave-in" headline. That same 'subway' headline is in the next shot when she sits down at the desk at her apartment to read it, before she hurriedly hides it in the drawer when her daughter enters the room.
    • Quotes

      Jos. W. Randall: God gives us heartache and the devil gives us whiskey.

    • Connections
      Featured in When the Talkies Were Young (1955)
    • Soundtracks
      The Wearing of the Green
      (uncredited)

      Traditional Irish street ballad

      Whistled by Harold Waldridge

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    FAQ17

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • September 26, 1931 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Sed de escándalo
    • Filming locations
      • Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA
    • Production company
      • First National Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Budget
      • $310,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 29 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White

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