Cinema Revisited: Five Star Final (1931)

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Marian Marsh, H.B. Warner, George E. Stone, Boris Karloff, Aline MacMahon, Oscar Apfel, Frances Starr, Ona Munson, Purnell Pratt. Released September 26, 1931. Running time: 89 minutes.

As journalism dramas go, nothing has matched, let alone topped, "Five Star Final." Based on the play by Louis Weitzenkorn, this pre-code drama deals with a newspaper that had once been a tabloid, but, under the editorship of Joseph Randall (Edward G. Robinson) it has moved away from sensationalism and reported on genuinely newsworthy events.

However, when circulation drops significantly, the investors insist on returning to their tabloid roots. Randall once covered a sordid story about Nancy Voorhees a pregnant stenographer who shot her boss to death when he refused to marry her. Because she was with child, the jury felt sorry for her and she was acquitted. This was decades earlier. Voorhees married the banker Michael Townsend (H.B. Warner), a respected citizen. He does know his wife's past, but the daughter, Jennie (Marian Marsh), does not. She believes Townsend to be her natural father, and is engaged to marry the socially prominent Philip Weeks (Anthony Bushell). Boris Karloff plays an unscrupulous reporter who poses as a minister to gain the trust of the subjects and dig up further information on them. The scandal systematically destroys the family, causing Vorhees and Townsend to commit suicide. Jennie confronts the reporters with a "why did you kill my mother" tirade. She pulls a gun to kill Randall, but Phillip bursts in just in time to stop her. Phillip then looks to Randall and growls, "You’ve grown rich on filth and no one’s ever dared rise up and crush you out." He promises to hunt Randall down if his wife's mention ever appears in the paper again. Randall is destroyed by guilt and shame, but the investors are thrilled with the uptick in circulation. He resigns in anger.

The year 1931 was a very important one for both Edward G. Robinson and Boris Karloff. Robinson scored with "Little Caesar," also directed by Mervyn LeRoy, and Karloff defined his career with "Frankenstein." In this film, Robinson is, as usual, brilliantly forceful, fast-taking, and fully in control. But his character also has brief moments of unsettled remorse. And the scene where he is forced on the defensive shows the depth of his acting talent. Karloff plays a character that is, in many ways, even creepier than the Frankenstein monster. He smarmily cons the family into revealing information and offering photographs. H.B. Warner and Frances Starr go from carefree happiness to shame and disgrace in the course of the narrative and play both attitudes with emotional power. Marian Marsh turns in perhaps the finest performance of her entire career, and her final tirade is one of pre-code cinema's most powerful scenes. And while Anthony Bushell's character of Phillip is only expected to be foppish and privileged, when the character rebels against his parents' reaction to the scandal, and triumphs for Jennie, it matches the fine acting of all others involved.

The film is further benefited by delightful turns by Aline MacMahon (making her movie debut) as Randall's devoted secretary, George E. Stone as a shifty reporter, Ona Munson as a loose woman who, by instruction, contributes further to the scandal, and Oscar Apfel as the money-fixated owner of the paper.

As this is such an early talkie, there is some element of less intimate stage-oriented performances that tend to the melodramatic at times. This is especially noticeable when Vorhees tearfully begs Randall over the phone to stop the story. But despite that trifling quibble, "Five Star Final" is a true classic at every level. The writing, the cinematography by Sol Polito, the direction, and certainly the performances are all first rate (the way each suicide is filmed, artfully but not graphically or sensationally, is especially remarkable).

Along with the film's aesthetic brilliance, it also has a significant historical component in its flagrant use of double-entendres, reference to sexual situations, and a narrative that deals pretty specifically with murder and out of wedlock pregnancy. None of these would be allowed once the production code was enforced a few years later, and they would remain taboo subjects for more than 30 years.

At the time of its release, "Five Star Final" was one of the biggest hit movies of the year, generating impressive box office numbers and was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar (than called Outstanding Production). It remains, as late as the 21st century, one of the finest American films of the pre-code era.