Five Star Final (1931)

Directed by

Mervyn LeRoy

Genre

drama film, crime film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 29m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.6 of 10 from 48 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A newspaper publisher pushes his editor to boost circulation by dredging up a forgotten murder case. The editor's relentless pursuit of a story ruins the lives of innocent people caught in the scandal.

tensecynicalfast-paceddarkly comicunsettlingcausticmelodramaticurgent

What happens

Five Star Final is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film about the excesses of tabloid journalism directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Edward G. Robinson, Aline MacMahon (in her screen debut) and Boris Karloff. The screenplay was by Robert Lord and Byron Morgan based on the 1930 play of the same name by Louis Weitzenkorn. The title refers to the practice of newspapers publishing a series of editions throughout the day, with their final-edition front page having five stars printed and the word "Final." "Five Star Final" is also a font introduced during World War I then favored by newspapers for its narrow type. Warner Bros. remade the film in 1936 as Two Against the World, also known as One Fatal Hour, starring Humphrey Bogart in Robinson's part and set in a radio station instead of at a newspaper. The film was nominated at the 5th Academy Awards (1931/1932) for Best Picture, but lost to Grand Hotel. Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst was greatly offended by the film, which he interpreted as a thinly veiled attack on him and his operation. He retaliated by publishing negative reviews in his papers and pressuring theaters not to show the film. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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