Five Star Final Full Movie

I don't know w 23 Oct 2010

A great performance by Robinson and a scathing hatchet job of sensationalistic media. When a newspaper decides to increase circulation by re-serialising a long dead passion-killer case; the acquited defendant finds her life being turned upside down again on the eve of her daughter's wedding. With film adaptations of stage plays, you rarely see any filmmaking qualities other than point and shoot. But here, there are quite a few tracking shots, including one following a suicide attempt using silhouettes and fades, that are impressive anyway. Doubly so for a 1931 shoot. A great lesson to be learned to anyone who allows for the manipulation of their morality by a media who merely seeks their dollar.

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Robert B 09 Sep 2012

Five Star Final (Mervyn LeRoy, 1931) If you're a fan of Edward G. Robinson's (and if you're not, you should be), you've gotta get your hands on this ridiculously over-the-top melodrama, made very early in Mervyn LeRoy's career and nominated for the best Picture Oscar in 1932 (it lost, and deservedly, to Grand Hotel). Robinson plays Randall, the newly-installed editor of a New York tabloid who wants to turn the paper in a more traditional direction, so he assigns muckraker Vern Isipod (Boris Karloff) to the society pages. You can see where this could go wrong, and indeed it does, in record time, with Isipod attempting to dig up dirt on a socialite in order to prevent her upcoming society marriageâ"and in the process causing her family irreperable harm. There is much scenery-chewing from everyone involved, an inspid script delivered with great gusto by the cast, and that still-early-in-the-world-of-talkies overexpression rampant. It's ridculous fun. ***

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Ken T 24 Mar 2010

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, skillfully told with solid direction from Mervyn LeRoy. A gem of a film with vivid characterizations and a skillfully written screenplay.

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Michael W. Phillips, Jr. 11 Jun 2006

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

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Mordaunt Hall 23 Jun 2006

This production races along without a desultory instant.

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