Five Star Final (1931)
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91% of critics liked it
(11 reviews) -
72% of users liked it
(214 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
- Directed By
- Mervyn LeRoy
- Genres
- Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, Classics
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Sep 26, 1931 Wide
Critic Reviews
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Variety Staff, Variety
Edward G. Robinson means a lot to this entertainment.
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Mordaunt Hall, New York Times
This production races along without a desultory instant.
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Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Mervyn LeRoy directed, doing a lot better with the newspaper chatter than with the long stretches of melodrama.
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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.
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, 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.
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Cast
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Edward G. Robinson
as Joseph Randall
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Marian Marsh
as Jenny Townsend
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H.B. Warner
as Michael Townsend
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Anthony Bushell
as Phillip Weeks
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George E. Stone
as Ziggie Feinstein
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Boris Karloff
as "Reverend" Vernon Isopod
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Frances Starr
as Nancy Voorhees Townsend
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Ona Munson
as Kitty Carmody
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Robert Elliott
as Brannegan
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Frank Darien
as Schwartz
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James Donlan
as Reporter
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Evelyn Hall
as Mrs. Weeks
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Aline MacMahon
as Miss Taylor
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Purnell Pratt
as Robert French
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David Torrence
as Weeks
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Harold Waldridge
as Arthur Goldberg
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Polly Walters
as Telephone Operator
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Oscar Apfel
as Bernard Hinchecliffe
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Gladys Lloyd
as Miss Edwards
