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IMDbPro

Five Star Final

  • 19311931
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 29m
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
Edward G. Robinson and Ona Munson in Five Star Final (1931)
Trailer for this newspaper drama
Play trailer1:55
1 Video
31 Photos
CrimeDramaMusic
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.
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
    • Mervyn LeRoy
    • Louis Weitzenkorn(based on the play by)
    • Byron Morgan(screen play)
    • Robert Lord(adaptation)
  • Stars
    • Edward G. Robinson
    • Marian Marsh
    • H.B. Warner
    • Mervyn LeRoy
    • Louis Weitzenkorn(based on the play by)
    • Byron Morgan(screen play)
    • Robert Lord(adaptation)
  • Stars
    • Edward G. Robinson
    • Marian Marsh
    • H.B. Warner
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 57User reviews
    • 29Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar

    Videos1

    Five Star Final
    Trailer 1:55
    Watch Five Star Final

    Photos31

    Edward G. Robinson, Boris Karloff, Oscar Apfel, Anthony Bushell, and Marian Marsh in Five Star Final (1931)
    Edward G. Robinson in Five Star Final (1931)
    Edward G. Robinson in Five Star Final (1931)
    Edward G. Robinson in Five Star Final (1931)
    Anthony Bushell and Marian Marsh in Five Star Final (1931)
    Edward G. Robinson and Oscar Apfel in Five Star Final (1931)
    Edward G. Robinson, Oscar Apfel, and Robert Elliott in Five Star Final (1931)
    Anthony Bushell, Marian Marsh, Frances Starr, and H.B. Warner in Five Star Final (1931)
    Frances Starr and H.B. Warner in Five Star Final (1931)
    Edward G. Robinson in Five Star Final (1931)
    Anthony Bushell, Marian Marsh, Frances Starr, and H.B. Warner in Five Star Final (1931)
    George E. Stone and William H. Strauss in Five Star Final (1931)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Edward G. Robinson
    Edward G. Robinson
    • Joseph 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 - Undertaker
    • (uncredited)
    James Donlan
    James Donlan
    • Reporter in Speakeasy
    • (uncredited)
    Evelyn Hall
    Evelyn Hall
    • Mrs. Isobel Weeks
    • (uncredited)
    Gladys Lloyd
    Gladys Lloyd
    • Miss Edwards
    • (uncredited)
      • Mervyn LeRoy
      • Louis Weitzenkorn(based on the play by)
      • Byron Morgan(screen play)
      • Robert Lord(adaptation)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      "The Evening Gazette" is based on the real-life "New York Evening Graphic," the most sensational of all the "Front Page"-era tabloid papers (critics called it the Porno-Graphic). The paper, owned by Bernarr Macfadden, published from 1924-32. At the time this film was made the Graphic had been losing circulation, because its new editor had been trying to make it a more respectable paper, just like in the film. The paper was best known for its "composographs," composite photographs used to create an otherwise unobtainable illustration. Louis Weitzenkorn, who wrote the original play, had been a reporter and editor on the" Evening Graphic."
    • 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 there 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, the headline on it can be seen and it isn't "Nancy Voorhees Story" as it was to begin with - it's now the "2 Die in Subway Cave-in" headline, and it's still that same 'subway' headline in the next shot when she sits down at the desk at her apartment to read it before hurriedly hiding it in the drawer when her daughter enters the room.
    • Quotes

      Joseph 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 (1798)

      Whistled by Harold Waldridge

    User reviews57

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    Deadlier Than The Tommy Gun
    Five Star Final according to Edward G. Robinson in his memoirs was a favorite role for him. He enjoyed having to go through a film without once taking up a weapon. But Robinson did have a weapon at his disposal here, one deadlier than the tommy gun. The power of yellow journalism to ruin and destroy lives for the sake of circulation.

    Circulation is down at the New York Graphic, the sleazy tabloid where Robinson is the hardboiled editor. Publisher Oscar Apfel decides to rake over a 20 year old murder, one of those where are they now pieces. A woman killed a man who got her pregnant and refused to marry her and another man stepped up to the plate and raised her baby girl as his own. The couple, H.B. Warner and Frances Starr have lived quietly and anonymously on the west side of Manhattan the daughter, Marian Marsh is about to marry Anthony Bushell the son of a manufacturer.

    The poking and prying of Robinson's reporters results in tragedy. It also gives Robinson a severe attack of conscience, encouraged by his girl Friday, Aline McMahon.

    Stealing the film in the small part he's in is Boris Karloff as disgraced seminarian who affects the guise of clergyman to get the story he's after. It's one of Karloff's best non-horror film roles, he's positively creepy in the part.

    The reason for Karloff's disgrace is sexual one and getting Karloff's mojo going as well is Ona Munson who also has a great part as the Nellie Bly of the tabloids. She tops Karloff in what she'll do for a story.

    Five Star Final is a hard hitting well acted drama that does tend to go a bit overboard into melodrama, especially when H.B. Warner and Frances Stark are on screen. It was nominated for Best Picture of the year, but lost to the immortal classic Grand Hotel. It was later remade five years later as Two Against The World with Humphrey Bogart taking the Robinson part and the locale changed from a newspaper to a radio station.

    I can easily see Five Star Final being remade for this century with the protagonist being the owner/operator of an internet website. The media may have changed, but sleaze is still sleaze.
    helpful•18
    2
    • bkoganbing
    • Mar 2, 2009

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 26, 1931 (United States)
      • United States
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA
    • Production company
      • First National Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • 1 hour 29 minutes
      • Black and White

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