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Just perfect...

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Scathing Indictment on Yellow Journalism. It is a Timeless Tale of the Human Condition. Sordid Gossip and the Exploitation of Anyone or Anything Used to Sell Something. Today it's Ratings, in 1931 it was Circulation.Edward G. Robinson is Energetic and Willing to Do What the Bosses Want and Dig Up Dirt and Mud Sling just Because it's His Job, and He is Good at it and gets Well Paid. Damn the Consequences.In this Pre-Code Movie the Reporters Stereotypical Drinking is in Full Force with Little Regard for Prohibition and there are Racial Slurs and Other Pre-Code Stingers. The Cast are All Delivering Expected Dated Histrionics with Boris Karloff Giddy as a Defrocked Priest Posing as a Priest to Get the Goods. Overall, Above Average Pre-Coder with Some Interesting Montages Amidst the Sleek Photography, and a Distinct Message that is Still Relevant Today. Nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

Five Star Final (1931)There is one main reason to watch this—Edward G. Robinson. I almost didn't continue after the first fifteen minutes because this newspaper office drama was so filled with convenient stereotypes and one-liners it was drab.Then came the obsessive-compulsive reporter played by Robinson, Mr. Randall. He's intense, and he's not in the movie nearly enough. There is a wonderful quirky part by Boris Karloff (a few months before doing Frankenstein's monster). And a slew of decent smaller parts keep it interesting like Aline MacMahon, playing a stenographer (and in her first film role) and Marian Marsh who plays the daughter with increasing intensity right up to the highly volatile last scene.This is the heyday of the unsung Mervyn LeRoy, a director with at least two unsurpassed movies ("Three on a Match" and "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang"), not including his work on "Wizard of Oz." He has a dozen other really good films to his name, and this one survives despite some filler and a slightly functional approach to the acting and staging. This was the day when directors (and their crews) were pressed to shoot movies in a couple weeks or so, and it shows.I only wish you could see the second half of this movie alone. It gets more dramatic, and more intense (and the one painfully wooden actress dies), and it really drives home the point against yellow, abusive journalism. The first half is stale enough to turn off a lot of viewers, I'm sure, and it brings down my overall impression of the totality. Luckily, if you make it to the end, you nearly forget the forgettable beginning and will leave with a good taste in your mouth.And all the drinking in the movie? "God gives us heartache, and the devil gives us whiskey," Randall says as he downs a shot. He's seems to be standing at an ordinary bar, not an illegal speakeasy. But the year is 1931, just before the end of Prohibition. (The premiere was September 1931.) Drink is a frank and normal reality in much of the movie as people swig from bottles in their desk and meet at the bar after work, and it's an eye-opener to counteract the more extreme portrayals of alcohol in the movies. And of course, it's normal for the viewer in the theater at the time as well, part of the general feeling that the time had come to change the laws (which Roosevelt did in early 1933).So, see this if you like pre-Code films, but stick it out through the more mundane parts. It's worth it.

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.

This is what made Edward G. Robinson so great. He could take any role and make it unique and also from the start he could kid his "tough guy" persona (which he doesn't do here)!!!! Aline MacMahon also deserves praise. This was her first film and she was perfect in the role of Miss Taylor - Randall's "conscience". Yes, she soon started to play kindly aunts and best friends but she was vital to any film that she was in and in this film, next to Robinson, she is the highlight. Adorable Marian Marsh, who had just had a hit as Trilby in "Svengali" went on to star in several hits of the early 30s. In this film she plays the daughter Jenny Townsend and her high light is the end - "Why did you kill my Mother????"Joseph W. Randall (Edward G. Robinson) is managing editor of the Evening Gazette, the biggest scandal rag in the city. He is determined to make the paper more respectable and because of that the circulation is down. "you are trying to get above our readers... Say if I sat on a cigar box I'd be above them!!!". The paper's owner "the sultan of slop" decides to resurrect a 20 year old murder case where a young woman Nancy Voorhees killed her boss. She stood trial but was let off because of her baby. The paper wants to know what became of her. She is now married to a bank manger (H.B. Warner) who loves her dearly and stood by her. Her daughter, Jenny is about to be married to Phillip (Anthony Bushell) whose parents are in high society.Boris Karloff is really creepy as Isopod, a defrocked priest - "don't drive in taxis with him!!!" He poses as a priest interviewing the parents of the bride - in reality trying to get a scoop for the paper. Jenny's parents confide in him, thinking he really is a priest and of course Isopod takes it to the papers.The story makes front page news on the day of the wedding. Phillip's parent visit and command that the wedding be called off. Nancy, the mother, calls the paper, and by the use of a triple screen you see how her pleas go unanswered by everyone, except Miss Taylor. Her husband goes to see a friend who says he will do all in his power to stop the story but it is too late for Nancy, who has taken her own life."Why did you kill my mother!!!!". Even though Phillip has stood by her, Jenny is distraught and goes to Randall's office planning to kill him. After a huge show down that will leave you emotionally breathless a glass door is broken and Randall goes off with Miss Taylor - "if you want my opinion - take me to a speakeasy some night - I won't be working for you then"!!! - to start a clean life away from the gutter of the scandal rag that has "more huddles on this paper than on the Notre Dame team!!!!"The door that was broken was the door to the owner's office - not the door out of the office.Highly recommended.