Spätausgabe

Five Star Final (1931)

*** (out of 4)

An editor (Edward G. Robinson) at a sleazy newspaper makes a mistake by bringing a 20-year-old murder case back to the headlines. Earlier this year I watched the remake One Fatal Hour with Bogart, which pretty much followed this film word for word but this one here is slightly better due to the rich performance from Robinson and a powerful ending attacking the media. Some racy Pre-Code dialogue centered around a gay reporter is pretty eye catching as is the pre-Frankenstein performance by Boris Karloff as a drunken reporter.

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

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.

Ordered to up the sleaze quotient for increased circulation, New York "Gazette" newspaper editor Edward G. Robinson (as Joseph W. Randall) dredges up the story of a local woman who shot her adulterous lover dead, and earned a scandalous reputation. The serialization sells newspapers, but the subject Frances Starr (as Nancy Voorhees) has changed her life with second husband H. B. Warner (as Michael Townsend); moreover, the couple has kept the sordid past secret from pretty daughter Marian Marsh (as Jenny), who is about to marry handsome high society's Anthony Bushell (as Phillip Weeks). When boozy staff reporter Boris Karloff (as Isopod) absconds with Ms. Marsh's picture, the consequences could prove tragic...

This is a fine if dated early "talkie" with a message still reverberating. The ensemble cast, sometimes venturing into melodramatics with understandable verve, is fun. Successful Broadway star Aline MacMahon makes an impressive film debut as Mr. Robinson's lovelorn secretary. Director Mervyn LeRoy moves it nicely and includes some rich "split-screen" work.

******** Five Star Final (9/10/31) Mervyn LeRoy ~ Edward G. Robinson, Frances Starr, Aline MacMahon, Boris Karloff

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.