Oftentimes I'll get done watching a movie and have a rather negative opinion on it, only to go online and see most people think it's great. This film is one of the last ones I would expect to feel this way about, as not only is it pre code, but it includes Edward G Robinson, an actor who was the lifeblood of some of history's greatest films ever. Five Star Final is about a newspaper company in New York digging up an incriminating story about a woman in order to get her convicted, which didn't happen the first time around. Although the story is 20 years old, the paper stops at nothing in their pursuit of what they deem justice. Robinson plays Joseph Randall, the main editor of the NY Evening Gazette. In an effort to make the paper more credible, he tries to incorporate more accurate reporting, but the paper becomes less popular as a result. Randall's superior, Mr. Hinchecliffe decides to get the paper's popularity back on track by starting a serial on a 20 year old murder case involving a woman named Nancy Voorhees and the time she killed her boss. In the original trial, Nancy was let go because she was about to have a baby and the jury pitied her. As of right now, Nancy is married to a wealthy guy named Michael and has a daughter named Jenny (Marian Marsh), who is going to marry soon. Randall agrees to do the story on Nancy and sends a reporter named Vernon Isopod (Boris Karloff) to her house in order to get information. Isopod poses as a harmless clergyman and succeeds in fooling Nancy and Michael, getting the former to give her a picture of Jenny. Only after Isopod leaves does Michael understand the consequences of what he's just done. Meanwhile, Taylor (Aline MacMahon), Randall's secretary, goes to a speakeasy to drink in order to try and forget what the paper is doing. It's clear she doesn't support their acts towards Nancy. Nancy later tries to call Randall and convince him to stop the story from being published, but he says it's already gone out. Unable to bear the public humiliation, she commits suicide in her bathroom. When Michael finds her, he shoos Jenny and her boyfriend Philip away and also kills himself. Two reporters then enter from the window and find the bodies. When Randall finds out, he knows he's hit the jackpot in terms of an interesting story. Philip's mother and father then attempt to get him to break off his engagement to Jenny, saying they don't want him to marry the daughter of a heartless killer. He stands his ground. After seeing all the trouble this story has been causing, Randall orders it to be dropped. Even though Hinchecliffe himself is also tired of the story by this point, his reporters aren't and want to give Jenny over a thousand dollars in order to obtain exclusive rights to her mother's story. Instead, Jenny herself shows up to Randall's office and screams at Randall and Hinchecliffe for their parts in killing her mother. She almost shoots Randall, but Philip takes her away. Randall, disillusioned and sickened by what Hinchecliffe has done (and made himself do), shouts him out of his office and resigns. Taylor decides to go with Randall. Despite this film being made the same year as Little Caesar, Robinson's most iconic role, I felt that he doesn't really offer much here that will impress you until the final minutes of the movie. I liked seeing how angry he got with Hinchecliffe at the end, but aside from this, I felt his part didn't fit him. When I think of him, I don't imagine someone who edits newspapers. I found most of the characters to be obnoxious, particularly one of the reporters that works for Randall, and Nancy's so called tragic death got no sympathy from me. Are we supposed to forget that she killed her employer? I felt like Jenny and Taylor were the best characters, especially the latter since she is sardonic throughout most of it. One thing I just can't put past me though is how Karloff's character is named isopod, which are a family of very unsettling looking crustaceans which live in the ocean. I'm better off without this image in my head every time he's onscreen. Overall, I seem to be in the minority when I say that Five Star Final is not among Robinson's finest moments, but newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst thought it was below average as well, so my viewpoint isn't entirely unique.
Review of Five Star Final
