Five Star Final (1931)

91% of critics liked it
(11 reviews)
71% of users liked it
(198 ratings)

Adapted from the stage play by former newspaperman Louis Weitzenkorn, Five Star Final is an uncompromising look at the consequences of journalistic irresponsibility. Hounded by his publishers to pep up circulation with a sensational story, newspaper editor Edward G. Robinson decides to revive public… More Adapted from the stage play by former newspaperman Louis Weitzenkorn, Five Star Final is an uncompromising look at the consequences of journalistic irresponsibility. Hounded by his publishers to pep up circulation with a sensational story, newspaper editor Edward G. Robinson decides to revive public interest in a long-ago murder case. He discovers that a woman (Sally Starr) who'd shot her lover nearly three decades earlier is now living under a new name and is married to a pillar of society (H.B. Warner). The woman's daughter (Marian Marsh) is just about to marry the son (Anthony Bushell) of another wealthy couple. Robinson sends one of his slimier reporters (Boris Karloff), a onetime divinical student who'd been expelled for sexual misconduct, to visit the woman and secure a photograph. The underhanded reporter disguises himself as the clergyman who will officiate at the wedding, worms his way into the family's confidence, and appropriates the photo. When the story hits the papers, the woman desperately tries to call Robinson and ask him to cease and desist, but Robinson is unmoved. The disgraced woman commits suicide, as does her husband a few moments later. The groom's parents snobbishly try to call off the wedding, but the groom stands by his fiancee's side and is disinherited. The grief-maddened daughter breaks into Robinson's office with a gun, threatening to kill him for ruining her mother. She is calmed down by her fiance, who warns Robinson that he himself will come back for revenge if the newspaper ever mentions the dead woman's name again. Five Star Final was remade in 1936 as Two Against the World, this time set in a radio station instead of a newspaper office. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 29 min.
Directed By: Mervyn LeRoy
Genres: Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, Classics

In Theaters: Sep 26, 1931 Wide

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff, Variety
Edward G. Robinson means a lot to this entertainment.
Mordaunt Hall, New York Times
This production races along without a desultory instant.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Mervyn LeRoy directed, doing a lot better with the newspaper chatter than with the long stretches of melodrama.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
This is an offbeat but fascinating film which pillories the transgressions of the muckraking tabloids so popular in the 1920s.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
A blistering indictment of tabloid journalism and built around one of Edward G. Robinson's most compelling performances.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Mervyn LeRoy's expose of greedy tabloid journalism was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, but is not as compelling as the similarly-themed The Front Page, though Edward G. Robinson is good.
, Film4
Thanks to the performances, especially Robinson as the tabloid editor and Marsh as the victim, the film is still engrossing.
Brian Darr, Senses of Cinema
Five Star Final is perhaps the darkest in the cycle of journalist-themed films produced in Hollywood during the early 1930s.
Tom Milne, Time Out
This early entry in the Warner 'social protest' cycle hasn't worn nearly so well as Hecht-Milestone's much less solemn and self-righteous The Front Page.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Worth seeing mainly for Karloff's colorful performance in a character role.
Michael W. Phillips, Jr., Goatdog's Movies
Despite a great turn by Robinson, the acting nearly sinks this film.