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Five Star Final (1931)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 11
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 0

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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 198

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Movie Info

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

Unrated, 1 hr. 29 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, Classics

Directed By: Mervyn LeRoy

In Theaters: Sep 26, 1931 Wide

Cast

Edward G. Robinson
Joseph Randall
Marian Marsh
Jenny Townsend
H.B. Warner
Michael Townsend
Anthony Bushell
Phillip Weeks
George E. Stone
Ziggie Feinstein
Boris Karloff
"Reverend" Vernon Isopo...
Frances Starr
Nancy Voorhees Townsend
Ona Munson
Kitty Carmody
Robert Elliott
Brannegan
Frank Darien
Schwartz
James Donlan
Reporter
Evelyn Hall
Mrs. Weeks
Aline MacMahon
Miss Taylor
Purnell Pratt
Robert French
David Torrence
Weeks
Harold Waldridge
Arthur Goldberg
Polly Walters
Telephone Operator
Oscar Apfel
Bernard Hinchecliffe
Gladys Lloyd
Miss Edwards

Critic Reviews for Five Star Final

All Critics (11) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (10) | Rotten (1) | DVD (1)

Edward G. Robinson means a lot to this entertainment.

March 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comment

Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

This production races along without a desultory instant.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Mordaunt Hall

New York Times

Top Critic

Mervyn LeRoy directed, doing a lot better with the newspaper chatter than with the long stretches of melodrama.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

This is an offbeat but fascinating film which pillories the transgressions of the muckraking tabloids so popular in the 1920s.

January 31, 2012 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

TV Guide's Movie Guide

A blistering indictment of tabloid journalism and built around one of Edward G. Robinson's most compelling performances.

April 28, 2011 Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

| Comment

Ken Hanke

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Mervyn LeRoy's expose of greedy tabloid journalism was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, but is not as compelling as the similarly-themed The Front Page, though Edward G. Robinson is good.

February 21, 2008 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

Thanks to the performances, especially Robinson as the tabloid editor and Marsh as the victim, the film is still engrossing.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

Five Star Final is perhaps the darkest in the cycle of journalist-themed films produced in Hollywood during the early 1930s.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Senses of Cinema

| Comment

Brian Darr

Senses of Cinema

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.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Tom Milne

Time Out

Worth seeing mainly for Karloff's colorful performance in a character role.

June 18, 2006 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Despite a great turn by Robinson, the acting nearly sinks this film.

June 12, 2006 Full Review Source: Goatdog's Movies

| Comment

Michael W. Phillips, Jr.

Goatdog's Movies Source: Goatdog's Movies

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Audience Reviews for Five Star Final

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Outstanding melodrama about the cold and heartless newspaper industry, and it is amazing how little things have changed with the press in eighty years. As always, Edward G. Robinson is terrific, Aline MacMahon stand out in a supporting role, as does H.B. Warner and Boris Karloff. It's a heart wrenchings story,

June 19, 2009

James Higgins

Thursday, December 9, 2010 (1931) Five Star Final DRAMA An early social commentary film about media sensationalism that involves a lady's attempts in moving on with her life after being acquited for a crime that happened 20 years ago with this particular newspaper stalking her and her husband or not leave it alone

December 9, 2010

Dave Jordon

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