VividSimon Simply Perfect

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

evanston_dad Hollywood really had a bone to pick with journalists in the early 1930s. In 1931 it nominated "The Front Page" for its Best Picture Oscar and a year later did the same with "Five Star Final."The first film is a lot of fun, but I think I admired the latter film more. It's gritty and racy in that pre-code way films from this time period were, and it pulls no punches in going after newspapers and the sleazy lengths they'll go to -- and the lives they're willing to destroy -- in the pursuit of profits.Edward G. Robinson is just one of the best actors in movies ever. How can such an ugly mug of a guy command the screen the way he does? See this movie for an example of his screen presence."Five Star Final" belongs to the unique list of films that received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture but no other nominations, something that hasn't happened since 1943 but that happened more frequently than you might think up to then.Grade: A

marcslope Typically fast-moving, bold Warners early talkie, helping cement its rep as the "socially conscious" studio, this is an indictment of tabloid journalism, focusing on an unscrupulous managing editor (Edward G. Robinson, superb) forced into an attack of conscience when the society wedding he's ordered an expose on--the mother of the bride murdered a boyfriend 20 years ago--results in a double suicide. Also typical of the studio, it's a tad too broad--the victimized family is just too nice, too perfect, and the murderous mom made too sympathetic. And the bride (Marian Marsh), when finally in a position to attack the paper, overacts. But it's a lively look at a hardy old form of journalism, with some excellent supporting performances--Boris Karloff as a deceitful reporter, the always-perfect Aline MacMahon as the secretary who loves boss Robinson--and a pretty realistic look at 1931, what with the speakeasies, the evening editions, the society pages. And the indictment of the tabloids hasn't dated a great deal; is what Rupert Murdoch does so very different?

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . 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!

blanche-2 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.