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Five Star Final Movie Review

Five Star Final is a 1931 Pre-Code drama film directed by Mervin LeRoy and starring Edward G. Robinson. It’s a pretty solid, serviceable Best Picture Nominee.

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“God gives us heartache and the devil gives us whiskey“

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It follows a journalist who resurrects an old case of a murderess to some tragic, eye opening results. This is yet another one of those journalist movies that were so popular during the early thirties and it’s overall of the similar quality as ‘The Front Page’. I did not expect that, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The film is much less interesting in its melodramatic family and romance scenes and it dragged in those sequences in particular. It is much better in the journalist stuff. Although rarely truly great, the finale is absolutely terrific. It’s an amazing sequence which showcases the tragedy that can befall a person after having being bombarded by the press and the protagonist’s realization of that and him quitting his job was emotionally rewarding and it remains a powerful and relatable statement to this day.

Yes, this was truly Edward G. Robinson’s moment to shine and he possibly gave his finest performance in this early drama flick. His final sequence packs an emotional wallop and he truly excelled at playing this calm, but angry on the inside, man who eventually finally bursts and leaves his job.

He’s so good that he leaves the others feeling rather inadequate in their roles. Some such as H.B. Warner are solid, but most are overly theatrical leading to the film feeling pretty stagey, as it to be expected from a 1931 film.

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Five Star Final is not well paced at all. The first half is particularly uninvolving and rarely managing to interest the audience, at least that was the case with me personally. The second half is so much better, more dramatic and quite moving even, but it took its sweet time to get there. The direction should have been much better and the same goes for the cinematography. But overall, it’s a solid film which was only nominated for one Oscar which is Best Picture weirdly enough. Although not deserved, it was far from a terrible choice either.

Five Star Final has a less involving first half and it works much less in melodramatic and romantic scenes, but the journalism stuff is excellent, the film makes a strong statement, Edward G. Robinson is superb in the main role and, although most of the other scenes aren’t great, that finale truly is amazing and quite moving.