Five Star Final (1931)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Sadly Over-hyped

Fantastic!

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Five Star Final is 85 years old yet nothing has changed in that the public still has an appetite to read about filth in newspapers. The themes here would be looked at in many newspaper comedies throughout the 1930's, however this is no screwball comedy - it's deadly serious. I guess we can't say "back in my day journalists had ethics". The real life inspiration for Five Star Final came from a New York tabloid called New York Evening Graphic. At the time of the film release the Evening Graphic was losing circulation because its new editor was attempting to make it a more respectable paper, just like the character of Randall played by Edward G. Robinson the editor of the fictional tabloid newspaper The Gazette.Randall is an editor who is not without ethics. Despite the objections of the paper's management, "Randall won't print pictures of girls in underwear in the pictures section" and prints cables from The League of Nations. The pressure is on him to stop printing "actual news" and more sensationalist stories and gossip. When Randall gives in we see the full sleaze of Edward G. Robinson; after all nobody could do sleaze better than him.The stealer of the show however is Boris Karloff as Isopod. This isn't a horror movie but his performance feel like one straight from a horror picture with is distinctive, eerie voice. Isopod is a disgraced priest of whom Randall disguises as a practicing priest to go undercover and do the paper's dirty work; a creep who is full of crap and as Randall puts it "You're the most blasphemous looking thing I've ever seen". The name Isopod in Greek means 'even footed' but more commonly is the name an unpleasant looking order of crustacean parasites so I guess it works.The Gazette has a number of shady practices; they bully retailers and vandalise their stalls for not putting their papers on top. Likewise they employee a pretty girl played by Ona Munson to do dirty work for the paper although the main reason they're choosing her for the job is that she's not flat chested, as evident by the shot in which Aline MacMahon is clearly looking at her rack (even Isopod enjoys checking her out).In order the increase the circulation of The Gazette, Randall unearths a 20 year old murder case for the sake of a sensational story later titled, "Famous Killer's Girl to Wed Society Man". Today with this internet thing we've got going on it would be highly unlikely someone could hide the fact they were once tried for murder while Isopod could just get a photograph of the murder's daughter on Facebook. But the fact remains the same: sensationalist news stories can affect the lives of innocent associates.The film has a truly superb cast with everyone having their moment in the sun and this being a film set in the world of journalism, the dialogue flows at a rapid fire rate; a form of acting which is truly a thing of the past. Marian Marsh's breakdown at the end is hair raising melodramatic brilliance, even if her husband just happens to walk in as she pulls out a gun in a delightfully improbable turn of events.The production values are excellent helmed under the great director Mervyn Le Roy (such an impressive back catalogue). The use of sound in the opening credits with boys shouting "extra!" and the noise of the printing press sets the atmosphere while it's evident the studio strived for this production to have authentic sets. Many shots in Five Star Final have an impressive level of depth such as that of George E. Stone with his feet up in foreground as he sits back while on the phone.Five Star Final contains innovative use of split screen as Mrs Voorhes (Frances Starr) in the middle of the frame is trapped between paper employees who go about their business as usual and try to ignore her but also shows the paper as voyeuristic spies. Yes, the filmmakers sure love their symbolism here. Throughout the film Randall is constantly washing his hands ("50 times a day" apparently) while the paper employees going to the bar and drink in order to deal with their conscience. Likewise Randall's closeted love interest Miss Taylor played by Aline MacMahon has feelings towards him but objects to his job and the paper; she is symbolic of his conscious. To top it all off, the film ends with an image of the paper lying in the gutter like the filthy rag it is; a final powerful image to stick in your mind.

. . . FIVE STAR FINAL reassures America's moms that there are media Guardians to prevent Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, Casey Anthony, or Jody Arias from changing their name and marrying their sons or daughters (or having a secret child who'd do the same thing). The "Townsend Crime Family" pictured here cuts their murderess-gene-bearing ward "Jenny" off from all her paternal relatives, and raise her as a wanton second-generation gun-wielding hothead. "Joe Randall" (Edward G. Robinson), the courageously crusading managing editor of the New York Evening Gazette, makes sure beneficiaries of "jury nullification" such as O.J. Simpson, Ms. Anthony, Ms. Arias, and the Townsend matriarch "Nancy" do NOT go laughing all the way to the bank with their gold-digger marriages. But with America now being carpeted wall-to-wall with the National Enquirer as well as thousands of on-line watchdogs and Blogs, plus millions of cell phone cameras, there's less and less danger of sneaks such as the Townsends trying top rub elbows with normal people, let alone marry into their family trees. FIVE STAR FINAL put new teeth into American precepts such as "The Truth will out" and "You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot always fool everybody as long as we have Wikipedia." FIVE STAR FINAL paved the way for ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN. Without it, King Richard I (a.k.a., President Milhous Nixon) might have been succeeded by Queen Julie lording it over us even today!

Hard to imagine the message of this film, since some 75 or so years later, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash trying to escape paparazzi.The film's premise is simple. The owner of a second tier newspaper wants to find some way to boost circulation. He appoints an editor played by film legend Edward G. Robinson to dig up the dirt on an old story. Twenty years ago, a woman named Nancy Voorhas shot and killed her lover.Trouble is that Voorhas has moved on, and has a brand new family. When she learns that the story is coming to public light yet again, she pleads for Joseph Randall (Played by Robinson)to drop the story. And the behest of the newspapers owner, he refuses. With all of the questions and pressure surrounding her, Voorhas commits suicide.What is left is for Joseph Randall to question if it was all worth it. Was it worth the life of Nancy Voorhas to sell extra copies of a newspaper? Robinson gives a speech at the end of the film that really was ahead of it's time, and was perhaps a foreshadowing of an age where celebrities are stalked, and people famous for a crime are forever hounded by that moment. The Joseph Randall character resigns his post, and states that he and the paper's editor played a role in the death of Nancy Voorhas, and should take the rightful blame.This is a must own film for any fan of Edward G. Robinson, and should be considered one of the landmark and greatest films of all time. It's rare to find on DVD, but if you should find it, buy it. You won't be disappointed.

The exploitativeness of tabloids is always a good subject, even back in 1931. "Five Star Final" is about a ruthless editor (Edward G. Robinson) who hounds a woman involved in a 20-year-old murder with tragic results. The film sports a good cast, including Boris Karloff, Mae Marsh, Ona Munson, Aline McMahon, and H.B. Warner.Robinson, as the editor, decides to do a series on an old murder and track down one of the people involved, Nancy Vorhees. She is now married with a daughter about to get married. The film looks at the effect it has on the lives of everyone in the family.I am not as enthusiastic about this film as some of the posters here, though I imagine it was very hard-hitting for 1931. The acting is very melodramatic, and while I appreciated the devastating effects of the story, I really thought a bad situation was made much worse by the behavior of the girl's parents at the end of the film. It wasn't until the mid-thirties that the class system in America began to disintegrate, so it's still quite evident here, with the way the young woman's future in-laws react to the scandal and Robinson's analysis of black readers.At the time the film was made, any publicity was looked down upon - today it's considered a great thing, though I don't suppose involvement in a murder would be. You might get a book deal out of it, though, and a TV movie. Nancy Voorhees today could have given the paper an exclusive interview and become a sympathetic character. But it was such a disgrace, and people seemed to have no understanding or compassion.It's hard to judge the performances because the acting style and the dialogue are so different from even a few years later. Of all of them, Aline McMahon, as the cynical secretary, comes off the best.Definitely worth seeing.