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Five Star Final

Five Star Final is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by First National Pictures for Warner Bros. distribution.^[1]^[2] Starring Edward G. Robinson as the hard-boiled city editor of a struggling tabloid newspaper, the film adapts Louis Weitzenkorn's 1930 Broadway play of the same name, portraying the moral compromises of sensationalist journalism through the revival of a decades-old murder case that precipitates personal ruin and suicide.^[3]^[4] Released on September 26, 1931, the 89-minute black-and-white production features supporting performances by Boris Karloff as a reporter and Aline MacMahon in her screen debut as the editor's sharp-tongued secretary.^[1]^[2] It earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture at the 5th Academy Awards and won Photoplay Awards for Best Picture of the Month and Robinson's performance.^[2]^[5] The film stands as a pointed critique of yellow journalism's ethical lapses, drawing from Weitzenkorn's experiences at tabloids like the New York World, and reflects early 1930s Hollywood's cycle of newspaper-themed dramas amid pre-Code permissiveness that allowed unvarnished depictions of vice and consequence.^[4]^[6] Its release provoked backlash from press barons, including allusions to William Randolph Hearst's practices in reopening scandals for profit, underscoring tensions between media power and public accountability.^[7]

Background and Development

Origins from the Stage Play

Louis Weitzenkorn, who penned the original play Five Star Final, based its narrative on his firsthand encounters as a reporter and editor at the New York Evening Graphic, a tabloid under Bernarr Macfadden that prioritized lurid sensationalism, fabricated "composographs" of celebrities, and ethical shortcuts to drive sales between 1924 and 1932.^[8]^[9] Weitzenkorn's disillusionment with the paper's exploitative tactics, including invading privacy for profit, fueled the play's examination of journalistic integrity under commercial pressures.^[10] The play debuted on Broadway at the Cort Theatre on December 30, 1930, produced by A. H. Woods, and sustained a run of 175 performances through June 1931, reflecting strong audience interest amid the early Great Depression.^[11] Its success stemmed from Weitzenkorn's raw portrayal of tabloid newsroom dynamics, earning critical praise for authenticity derived from the author's Graphic tenure.^[9] Central to the play—and carried over to the film—is the tension between editorial scruples and ownership demands to revive dormant personal scandals for circulation gains, mirroring Weitzenkorn's observed conflicts at the Graphic where profit often trumped restraint.^[8]^[9] This core dilemma underscores the play's indictment of yellow journalism's moral costs without veering into outright fiction, as Weitzenkorn insisted the story reflected verifiable industry practices.^[10]

Historical Context of Tabloid Journalism

Tabloid journalism emerged in the United States during the early 1920s, exemplified by the launch of the New York Daily News on June 26, 1919, which became the nation's first successful tabloid-format newspaper by emphasizing large photographs, concise stories, and sensational coverage of crime, sports, and scandals to appeal to working-class readers.^[12] By its first anniversary in June 1920, the Daily News achieved a circulation exceeding 100,000 copies daily, surging to over one million by 1925 through lurid headlines and human-interest tales that prioritized emotional impact over comprehensive analysis.^[13] This format, inspired by British tabloids, capitalized on urban literacy growth and mass transit commuting, where commuters favored quick, visually driven content over traditional broadsheets.^[12] William Randolph Hearst responded to this trend by launching the New York Daily Mirror in 1924, a deliberately racy tabloid that mirrored the Daily News style with exaggerated accounts of sex scandals, criminal exploits, and celebrity indiscretions, often blending factual reporting with unverified embellishments to boost sales amid fierce New York circulation battles.^[12] Hearst's publications, including the Mirror, routinely featured composite narratives—blended or fabricated elements presented as real events—to heighten drama, such as hyped murder trials or illicit affairs, reflecting a causal dynamic where publisher competition for advertising revenue incentivized distortion over strict accuracy.^[14] These practices drove readership gains, with the Daily News reaching 1.52 million copies by 1930, as public demand for escapist, titillating content evidenced by sales spikes following high-profile crime stories outpaced ethical reservations.^[12] The 1929 stock market crash intensified economic pressures on the press, prompting tabloids to double down on sensationalism to sustain circulation amid plummeting ad revenues, as verifiable data shows Daily News sales climbing to two million daily in the 1930s despite widespread industry contraction.^[15] This era's "yellow journalism" revival, characterized by partisan slants and scandal-mongering, was fueled by reader preferences for lurid escapism during hardship, with empirical circulation figures demonstrating that stories on vice and violence yielded higher sales than sober reporting.^[14] Concurrently, the American Society of Newspaper Editors adopted the Canons of Journalism on April 27, 1923, articulating principles of responsibility and truthfulness that implicitly critiqued tabloid excesses by mandating public welfare over mere reader attraction, though adherence remained uneven as market incentives prevailed.^[16]

Production

Pre-Production and Adaptation

Warner Bros. acquired the film rights to Louis Weitzenkorn's play Five Star Final shortly after its Broadway debut on December 30, 1930, enabling a rapid transition to the screen with the adaptation completed in time for a September 1931 release.^[17]^[18] The screenplay, penned by Robert Lord and Byron Morgan, closely followed the source material's structure and dialogue to maintain its indictment of tabloid excesses, while leveraging the pre-Code era's lax standards to include unflinching portrayals of implied premarital sex and suicide as consequences of journalistic intrusion.^[9] This fidelity preserved the play's core message against media sensationalism, drawn from Weitzenkorn's own tenure as an editor at the scandal-sheet New York Evening Graphic.^[7] Mervyn LeRoy was assigned to direct, attracted by the project's alignment with Warner Bros.' cycle of hard-hitting social dramas critiquing institutional failures, as seen in his concurrent work on films like Little Caesar that exposed corruption in organized crime and public life.^[19] Adaptation choices emphasized visual dynamism over stage-bound theatrics, such as tightening scenes to underscore causal links between editorial decisions and personal tragedies, thereby amplifying the narrative's cautionary stance on profit-driven news exploitation without diluting its dramatic tension.^[6] Pre-production casting focused on performers versed in portraying the moral ambiguities of newsroom professionals, favoring those with theatrical backgrounds to lend authenticity to the journalistic vernacular and ethical dilemmas, though lead roles ultimately went to established film actors capable of conveying the play's raw intensity.^[9] This approach ensured the adaptation retained the stage production's gritty realism while adapting to cinematic pacing.^[20]

Filming and Technical Aspects

Five Star Final was filmed entirely on Warner Bros.' studio lots in Hollywood during principal photography, which spanned from April to May 1931, enabling a swift production turnaround to align with the play's topical relevance.^[21] The efficient schedule, completed in under two months, reflected the studio's assembly-line approach to Pre-Code dramas, prioritizing rapid output amid the early sound era's technical demands.^[22] Director Mervyn LeRoy employed early synchronized sound techniques, including overlapping dialogue and fast-paced delivery, to evoke the chaotic rhythm of tabloid newsrooms, building on innovations from 1929 onward that allowed multiple actors to speak simultaneously without post-dubbing constraints.^[23] These methods, facilitated by Vitaphone recording, heightened the film's gritty realism, with newsroom scenes featuring layered conversations and clattering teletypes to immerse audiences in journalistic frenzy, eschewing orchestral scores in favor of ambient urban noise like newsboy shouts.^[20] As a Pre-Code film produced before the 1934 enforcement of the Hays Office guidelines, Five Star Final incorporated unvarnished portrayals of moral ambiguity, including implied suicide and ethical compromises in sensational reporting, free from mandated cuts or moral disclaimers that later censored similar themes.^[20] LeRoy's direction emphasized close-ups on Edward G. Robinson's Randall during pivotal confrontations, underscoring the character's internal turmoil through stark lighting and minimalistic sets that confined action to claustrophobic office spaces, amplifying the tension of deadline-driven decisions.^[24] This technical focus on performance-driven cinematography, rather than elaborate exteriors, reinforced the film's critique of media sensationalism within the era's budgetary and stylistic norms.^[25]

Plot Summary

The Evening Gazette, a struggling New York tabloid, faces declining circulation under managing editor Joseph W. Randall, who resists sensationalism but yields to pressure from publisher Bernard Hinchecliffe to revive a 20-year-old scandal for profit.^[26]^[17] The story centers on Nancy Voorhees Townsend, acquitted two decades earlier for murdering her employer after he impregnated and abandoned her; now a respectable wife to Michael Townsend and mother to Jenny, whose wedding to Philip Weeks looms.^[6]^[26] Randall dispatches reporters, including the unscrupulous T. Vernon Isopod posing as a reverend and Kitty Carmody, to infiltrate the Townsend home and confirm details, securing a photo of Jenny despite family pleas for privacy.^[17]^[6] The exposé publishes in the "five star final" edition on the wedding day, triggering Nancy's suicide by poison and Michael's subsequent self-inflicted gunshot upon discovery.^[26]^[17] Carmody photographs the bodies for further headlines, boosting sales by 100,000 copies, while Jenny confronts Randall at gunpoint, decrying the human cost; Randall rebukes Hinchecliffe and departs with his secretary, Miss Taylor, as headlines drain away like sewage.^[6]^[26]

Cast and Characters

Principal Performers

Edward G. Robinson starred as Joseph W. Randall, the managing editor of a sensationalist tabloid newspaper, infusing the role with a volatile mix of ruthless drive and emerging remorse that aligned with the rapid, emotive style of early sound-era acting. Robinson, who had honed his craft in Yiddish theater and Broadway before transitioning to film, channeled the same forceful presence seen in his January 1931 breakout as the gangster Rico Bandello in Little Caesar to portray Randall's ethical unraveling under profit pressures.^[4]^[1] Aline MacMahon debuted on screen as Miss Taylor, Randall's sharp-tongued and loyal secretary who serves as a voice of conscience amid the newsroom chaos, marking a seamless adaptation of her established Broadway persona of wry, resilient women. MacMahon's performance, praised for its authenticity in capturing the archetype of a jaded yet principled underling, leveraged her stage experience from productions like The Merry Widow to deliver naturalistic dialogue delivery suited to the film's pre-Code intensity.^[2]^[6]

Supporting Roles

Boris Karloff played T. Vernon Isopod, an expelled divinity student employed as a reporter who impersonates a clergyman to infiltrate the Townsend household and extract a photograph for the tabloid's story.^[3] His characterization emphasizes the underhanded tactics available to newsroom staff, blending opportunistic deceit with a hint of grotesque opportunism that underscores the seedy resources at the editor's disposal.^[27] Frances Starr portrayed Nancy Voorhees Townsend, the middle-aged woman whose 20-year-old manslaughter conviction—stemming from shooting her unfaithful lover—is revived by the Gazette to boost circulation, thereby shifting focus to the personal fallout experienced by those targeted.^[28] Her role humanizes the collateral damage inflicted by journalistic intrusion, contrasting the newsroom's detachment.^[6] Additional supporting performers filled out the newsroom milieu, including George E. Stone as Ziggie Feinstein, a wisecracking reporter handling routine assignments, and Ona Munson as Kitty Carmody, a gossipy colleague who amplifies the office's rumor-driven energy.^[29] Aline MacMahon, in her film debut, appeared as Miss Taylor, the managing editor's sympathetic secretary who quietly witnesses the ethical shortcuts.^[1] Collectively, these portrayals depict a bustling, interdependent staff where individual roles— from fact-checkers to stringers—facilitate the paper's relentless output, illustrating the collaborative machinery behind tabloid sensationalism without relying on singular antagonists.^[1]

Release and Commercial Performance

Box Office Results

Five Star Final premiered on September 10, 1931, at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City, where it achieved record-breaking attendance and was subsequently held over due to robust public interest.^[30]^[24] The film's strong initial draw extended to other markets, with reports of extended runs in various theaters nationwide, reflecting its commercial viability despite the onset of the Great Depression.^[24] Warner Bros. recorded a negative production cost of approximately $310,000 for the film, generating domestic rentals of $665,000 and foreign earnings of $157,000, resulting in a net profit estimated at around $500,000 after costs.^[31]^[32] This performance underscored the studio's ability to capitalize on Edward G. Robinson's star appeal and the public's fascination with journalistic sensationalism, even as broader industry challenges from economic downturns pressured profitability.^[31] Relative to 1931 contemporaries, Five Star Final ranked among Warner Bros.' stronger performers, contributing to the studio's output of socially themed dramas that resonated during an era of economic hardship and escapist demand.^[33] Its success highlighted how timely, hard-hitting narratives could drive attendance without relying solely on lighter fare.^[24]

Initial Distribution Challenges

As a pre-Code production released on September 26, 1931, by First National Pictures (a Warner Bros. subsidiary), Five Star Final incorporated bold elements such as depictions of adultery, suicide, and journalistic exploitation of tragedy, which evaded national-level Hays Office mandates but invited scrutiny from state and local censorship boards.^[6] These bodies, operating independently in jurisdictions like New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, frequently demanded cuts to content deemed morally debasing, including the film's portrayal of a disgraced former divinity student posing as a clergyman and sensationalized coverage of a rape and double suicide.^[6] Although no widespread bans occurred, the potential for regional edits or restrictions complicated uniform nationwide distribution, requiring distributors to navigate varying approval processes that could delay bookings in conservative markets.^[6] External pressures intensified from media industry figures, notably William Randolph Hearst, whose tabloid empire mirrored the film's Evening Gazette. Hearst sought to suppress the picture through influence over exhibitors and newspapers, perceiving its critique of yellow journalism as a direct assault, but these efforts failed to halt its rollout.^[20] This backlash from press moguls, echoed in broader newspaper protests against the film's themes, pressured Warner Bros. to defend its availability amid threats of boycotts, yet audience interest sustained theater engagements, with reports of extended runs in major cities overriding elite opposition.^[20] No verifiable nationwide delays stemmed directly from moral watchdogs like the early Hays Office, which exercised only advisory self-censorship at the time—evident in the film's toned-down religious elements to preempt objections—but localized hurdles underscored the logistical tensions of distributing provocative content in a fragmented regulatory landscape.^[6]

Critical Reception and Awards

Contemporary Reviews

The New York Times review of September 11, 1931, commended Five Star Final for its unflinching portrayal of yellow journalism, stating that "in the attack on the methods of yellow journalism there is no mincing matters" and depicting a newspaper "swept up in a gutter."^[34] The critic highlighted the film's brisk pacing under Mervyn LeRoy's direction, which "races along without a desultory instant," and praised Edward G. Robinson's "strong performance" as the editor, who makes "the most of every line."^[34] Variety's 1931 assessment echoed this acclaim, calling the adaptation "a strong talker" derived from Louis Weitzenkorn's play as a "strong argument against the scandal type of tabloid newspaper."^[4] The trade publication emphasized the film's relevance to real-world tabloid excesses, such as circulation-driven sensationalism leading to personal tragedies like suicides, and credited Robinson's portrayal of the morally conflicted managing editor—complete with a habitual hand-washing gesture symbolizing ethical erosion—as pivotal to bridging the stage and screen versions.^[4] Supporting performances, including H.B. Warner and Frances Starr in a tense suicide scene, were noted for avoiding potential mishandling.^[4] While reviews lauded the social commentary on journalism's profit-driven ethics, some contemporary observers observed melodramatic tendencies in the plot's escalation toward tragedy, though this did not overshadow the overall impact on audiences amid the era's tabloid scandals.^[4] The film's commercial success, reflected in robust attendance at venues like New York's Winter Garden, served as an indicator of favorable popular reception to its provocative themes.^[34]

Academy Award Nominations

Five Star Final was nominated for Outstanding Production, the precursor to the Best Picture award, at the 5th Academy Awards on November 18, 1932. The film, produced by Hal B. Wallis for First National Pictures, competed against six other entries: Arrowsmith, Bad Girl, The Champ, Grand Hotel (winner), One Hour with You, and Shanghai Express.^[35] This sole nomination reflected the Academy's recognition of its dramatic intensity and topical relevance amid a field dominated by diverse genres, though it did not secure a win.^[2] No additional categories, such as directing by Mervyn LeRoy or performances by leads like Edward G. Robinson and Boris Karloff, received nods, as verified by official records.^[5] The honor positioned the film as a notable pre-Code Hollywood critique, elevating its status in industry discourse on journalistic ethics without translating to broader Academy success.^[36]

Themes and Analysis

Critique of Sensationalism

Five Star Final portrays tabloid sensationalism through the newspaper's revival of a decade-old scandal involving euthanasia, achieved by dispatching a reporter disguised as a social worker to intrude on the subject's family, eliciting coerced responses and photographs under false pretenses. This tactic, combined with hyperbolic headlines and selective fabrication of details to heighten drama, directly precipitates the suicides of two characters, underscoring a causal mechanism where profit imperatives override individual welfare, as the editor explicitly ties story exploitation to measurable circulation increases.^[37]^[17] Such depictions mirror 1920s American tabloid practices, where outlets like the New York Daily News leveraged graphic scandal coverage to surge readership; the paper's 1928 front-page photograph of Ruth Snyder's electrocution—smuggled via a hidden ankle camera—propelled single-day sales by 500,000 copies to a then-record 1,556,000, exemplifying how intrusions and visual sensationalism yielded empirical commercial gains amid subjects' irreversible ruin.^[38]^[39]^[40] Yet the film and era's dynamics reflect sensationalism's alignment with reader appetites, as U.S. tabloids proliferated in the 1920s by prioritizing crime, sex, and true-crime spectacles over drier reporting, enabling the Daily News—America's inaugural tabloid—to evolve from 26,000 initial copies in 1919 to over 1 million by the late decade through market-responsive emphasis on accessible, lurid content that dominated urban newsstands.^[41]^[42]^[43]

Journalism Ethics and Profit Motives

In Five Star Final, the newspaper's publisher explicitly pressures editor Joseph T. Randall to revive a decade-old scandal involving Nancy Green's past involvement in a mercy killing—despite her acquittal—to spike circulation amid declining ad revenue during the Great Depression.^[44] This portrayal underscores how profit imperatives incentivize ethical shortcuts, such as invading privacy and fabricating drama, as Randall's team fabricates "space-eater" stories like fake séances to fill pages and justify sensational headlines.^[9] The film's narrative illustrates causal dynamics where short-term sales gains from scandal-mongering outweigh long-term reputational risks, with circulation metrics dictating editorial decisions over journalistic integrity.^[45] While the film condemns monopoly-like control by profit-obsessed owners, it implicitly highlights competition's mixed role in competitive urban markets of the era, where tabloids like the fictional Evening Gazette emulated real New York dailies in a race for readers, yet internal dissent—such as from circulation manager MacWade—suggests potential for self-correction if ethical actors challenge dominant practices.^[44] Absent concentrated ownership, rival papers could differentiate via restraint, as seen historically in the 1920s when broadsheets criticized tabloid excess, though empirical evidence from circulation wars shows sensationalism often prevailed due to reader preferences for drama over dry facts.^[46] The film's resolution, with Randall's redemption and the paper's symbolic downfall, posits that market accountability via backlash can enforce ethics, but only if consumers penalize violators—a dynamic undermined by the era's advertising dependency on volume over quality.^[9] The production itself exemplifies the hypocrisy it critiques, as Warner Bros. profited from dramatizing tabloid atrocities—grossing over $1.5 million domestically against a $500,000 budget—mirroring the industry's reliance on scandal for revenue while decrying it on screen.^[44] This self-reflexive tension reflects broader media incentives, where condemnation serves as both moral cover and promotional hook, allowing creators to exploit the very dynamics they condemn without structural reform.^[46] Post-release, the film coincided with voluntary ethics efforts like the American Society of Newspaper Editors' 1923 Canons, which prioritized truth and minimized "personal privilege" in news, but these remained unenforced amid persistent tabloid practices into the mid-1930s, as Depression-era papers chased survival through gimmicks despite scandals. By 1937, amid radio competition eroding print dominance, some outlets adopted stricter self-regulation, yet profit-driven sensationalism endured, evidencing codes' limited causal impact against economic pressures.^[47]

Public Demand Versus Moral Responsibility

The commercial viability of sensationalist tabloids in the early 1930s underscored public complicity in their practices, as newspapers like the New York Evening Graphic—which inspired the play underlying Five Star Final—sustained operations through exploitative content appealing to readers' tastes for scandal and drama, achieving peak daily circulations in the hundreds of thousands before economic pressures led to its 1932 shutdown.^[7]^[17] Publisher-driven imperatives in the film mirror this dynamic, with the Gazette's owner Hinchecliffe and sales staff pressuring editor Joseph Randall to revive a decades-old murder scandal involving Nancy Voorhees to counteract slumping sales, arguing that such stories fulfill reader demand and ensure profitability. Defenders of tabloid journalism during this era contended that outlets merely catered to existing market preferences, positioning the press as a responsive enterprise rather than a moral arbiter, a viewpoint echoed in the film's portrayal of editorial rationalizations for prioritizing circulation over restraint.^[48] This perspective aligns with broader free-press arguments emphasizing consumer sovereignty, where high readership figures for yellow journalism variants validated content strategies as democratically driven rather than inherently predatory. Counterarguments, however, emphasized journalists' individual moral agency over consumer blame, asserting that ethical lapses in newsrooms precipitate harm irrespective of audience appetite; in Five Star Final, Randall's arc exemplifies this, as his initial compliance with sensational assignments—culminating in the Voorhees couple's suicides—yields to profound remorse, prompting his resignation and a symbolic rejection of the industry's compromises.^[48] Critics of exploitation framed such causality as indefensible, prioritizing the foreseeable destructive impact of invasive reporting on vulnerable individuals over aggregate public interest, thereby highlighting the editor's duty to exercise restraint amid profit motives.

Controversies

Backlash from Media Moguls

William Randolph Hearst, whose newspaper empire exemplified the sensationalist "yellow journalism" critiqued in the film, viewed Five Star Final as a direct assault on his practices and reportedly refused to permit any coverage of it in his publications. This ban extended across Hearst's chain, which included major dailies like the New York Journal and San Francisco Examiner, effectively silencing promotional mentions or reviews in outlets reaching millions of readers.^[49] Hearst's reaction stemmed from the film's portrayal of ruthless tabloid tactics—such as invading privacy for circulation gains—that mirrored his own history of aggressive reporting during the Spanish-American War era and beyond.^[45] Despite this opposition, the film proceeded to wide release on September 13, 1931, through First National Pictures (a Warner Bros. affiliate), demonstrating the studio's ability to navigate industry power dynamics without capitulating to a single mogul's influence.^[20] Hearst's self-interested response prioritized protecting his media dominance, as allowing publicity for a work indicting such methods could undermine his business model reliant on scandal-driven sales.^[50] No comparable documented backlash emerged from other media figures like Joseph Pulitzer's successors or Scripps-Howard executives, though the film's broad condemnation of profit-over-ethics journalism likely resonated as a generalized threat to the era's press barons.^[46] The persistence of Five Star Final's distribution highlighted Warner Bros.' resilience, bolstered by its growing vertical integration in production and exhibition, against informal boycotts from print media gatekeepers.

Accusations of Hypocrisy in Media Portrayal

Critics and analysts have pointed to potential hypocrisy in the film's method of critiquing tabloid journalism, arguing that its reliance on melodramatic tragedy for audience engagement echoes the sensationalism it condemns. The plot culminates in suicides and emotional confrontations—such as the daughter's distress over revived scandals leading to her and her husband's deaths—to drive narrative tension and commercial appeal, much like the newspaper's circulation-boosting exposés within the story. This approach, while effective in highlighting human costs, has been seen as exploiting similar emotional levers for profit in the pre-Code Hollywood context, where studios prioritized gritty, crowd-drawing dramas amid economic pressures.^[17]^[25] Contemporary reviews, however, largely praised the film's unsparing exposure of journalistic ethics without leveling direct hypocrisy charges against its execution. The New York Times review on September 11, 1931, commended its "no restraint" in attacking yellow journalism tactics, such as dredging up a 20-year-old murder case for headlines, and highlighted the irony of the tabloid's success from resulting tragedies. Variety's 1931 assessment similarly framed it as a "strong argument against" press excesses, emphasizing the editor's moral compromises under ownership pressure rather than critiquing the film's own dramatic style.^[34]^[4] Defenders contend that the melodramatic elements served a didactic purpose, amplifying real-world inspirations like the 1927 Snyder-Gray execution coverage to underscore ethical failures, thereby raising public awareness of media responsibilities. The film's achievements, including its two Academy Award nominations—for Best Picture and Best Director Mervyn LeRoy—reflect recognition of this balance between entertainment and critique, even as its formulaic tragedy risks undermining the purity of its message.

Legacy and Influence

Remakes and Adaptations

Two Against the World (1936), directed by William McGann, serves as the primary remake of Five Star Final, adapting the same 1930 play by Louis Weitzenkorn but relocating the central conflict from a tabloid newspaper to a struggling radio station.^[51] Humphrey Bogart portrays the station manager, a role akin to Edward G. Robinson's ethically conflicted editor in the original, with the narrative centering on the broadcast of a scandalous story that drives a family to tragedy.^[52] This medium shift mirrors the rapid expansion of radio as a mass communication tool during the Great Depression era, when listening audiences surpassed newspaper readership in some demographics by the mid-1930s.^[53] The 1936 version, running 64 minutes compared to the original's 89, significantly softens the pre-Code film's raw depictions of journalistic cynicism, suicide, and extramarital affairs to adhere to the Motion Picture Production Code enforced since July 1934.^[51]^[3] Explicit language and moral relativism yield to more restrained dialogue and resolutions, diluting the critique of media sensationalism while emphasizing personal redemption over systemic indictment.^[20] Critics at the time noted the remake's inferior pacing and diluted impact, attributing weaknesses to budget constraints and Code-mandated alterations rather than cast performance.^[6] No subsequent major film or television adaptations have been produced, though the underlying play has occasionally been referenced in discussions of media ethics without formal revivals documented in production records.^[9] The remake's radio focus prefigures later broadcast-era scandals but avoids deeper exploration of profit-driven ethics, prioritizing narrative brevity over the original's unflinching analysis.^[54]

Impact on Depictions of Journalism

Five Star Final helped pioneer the cynical portrayal of journalists in early 1930s cinema, coinciding with The Front Page (1931) to inspire a surge in newspaper-themed films that depicted reporters as ethically compromised figures prioritizing circulation over integrity.^[37]^[55] Both films, adapted from Broadway plays by former newspapermen, presented tabloid editors and staff exploiting scandals—such as resurrecting a decades-old murder case tied to a prominent family—for profit, contrasting with romanticized newsroom comedies by emphasizing sleaze and moral erosion.^[56] This archetype, featuring characters like Edward G. Robinson's guilt-ridden editor who fabricates headlines amid plummeting ethics, became a template for subsequent Hollywood yarns critiquing yellow journalism's real-world tactics, including anonymous tips and staged photos.^[37]^[57] The film's influence extended to reinforcing a persistent cinematic tradition of journalists as antagonists in ethical conflicts, from pre-Code era exposés to later works like Absence of Malice (1981), where media sensationalism drives tragedy.^[57] By dramatizing the causal chain from publisher demands for "sex and sin" stories to personal ruin—such as suicides triggered by invasive coverage—it contributed to early discussions on journalism's profit motives overriding public good, drawing from verifiable 1920s tabloid excesses like those of New York Evening Graphic.^[58]^[9] These portrayals challenged contemporaneous sanitized views of the press, highlighting how circulation drops from ethical shifts underscored the industry's reliance on controversy.^[59] In contemporary analyses, Five Star Final resurfaces in film scholarship and retrospectives as a prescient critique of media's timeless tension between audience appetites and accountability, with its unsparing lens on exploitative practices informing views that reject narratives of inherent journalistic purity.^[6] Scholars note its role in perpetuating "black hat" journalist tropes across decades, from 1930s assembly-line productions to modern ethics debates, without evidence of direct causation in regulatory reforms but as a cultural artifact amplifying calls for restraint amid rising tabloidism.^[57]^[58]

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Mar 1, 2013 · Five Star Final directly addresses in its own immodest terms: journalism has two goals: elevating public discourse and making money.
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Pre Code Confidential #18: FIVE STAR FINAL (Warner Brothers 1931)
Apr 26, 2018 · Pre Code Confidential #18: FIVE STAR FINAL (Warner Brothers 1931). Tabloid journalism has been around far longer than the cable “news” channels ...
[22]
History of film - Pre-WWII, Sound, Era - Britannica
Oct 18, 2025 · Warner Brothers, then a minor studio in the midst of aggressive ... Five Star Final, 1931; John Cromwell's Scandal Sheet, 1931; Frank ...
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History of film - Postsynchronization, Technology, Art | Britannica
Oct 18, 2025 · ... overlapping dialogue as early as 1929. Generally, through 1932 ... Five Star Final, 1931; John Cromwell's Scandal Sheet, 1931; Frank ...
[24]
Five Star Final (1931) Starring Edward G. Robinson
Dec 14, 2013 · In Five Star Final the strong-arm orders originate from a legitimate business, albeit one that bends rules and morals whenever necessary to ...Missing: experiences | Show results with:experiences
[25]
Five Star Final – 1931, Mervyn le Roy | Wonders in the Dark
Mar 16, 2012 · FIVE STAR FINALE is a kind of pre-code classic, and Robinson is exceptional. The Warner Archives DVD is terrific, and Allan has penned a ...
[26]
FIVE STAR FINAL - Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
After he takes them into his confidence he obtains a photo of Jenny and info on the groom, and when the story runs in the five-star final edition the parents ...<|separator|>
[27]
http://immortalephemera.com/45557/five-star-final-1931/
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Five Star Final | Rotten Tomatoes
Rating 91% (11) A newspaper editor revives a 20-year-old murder case to boost sales, leading to disastrous consequences for the story's publishing.Missing: summary | Show results with:summary
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Full cast & crew - Five Star Final (1931) - IMDb
Cast ; Edward G. Robinson · Jos. W. Randall ; Marian Marsh · Jenny Townsend ; H.B. Warner · Michael Townsend ; Anthony Bushell · Phillip Weeks ; George E. Stone · Ziggie ...Missing: principal | Show results with:principal
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Site Map - September 10, 1931 - The New York Times
Five Star Final" to Open Tonight. PROTRACTOR VICTOR IN SYRACUSE RACE; Sets Track Mark of 1:10 3-5 for 6 Furlongs in Winning Grange Day Handicap ...
[31]
Appendix 1 - Taylor & Francis Online
Warner Bros. Financial Data. (all fiaures in thousands of dollars). The top ten films of each season, based on total earnings ... Five Star Final. 310. 665. 157.
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https://neglectedbooks.com/?p=24678
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1931 Top Box Office Movies | Ultimate Movie Rankings
Five Star Final (1931) AA Best Picture Nom. 1931, Reducing (1931). 1931, A ... Because i know that variety , imdb and box office mojo only give US gross ...
[34]
THE SCREEN; Sensational Journalism. A German Film Drama. A ...
Sensational Journalism.FIVE STAR FINAL, adapted from the play by Louis Weitzenkorn; directed by Mervyn Le Roy; a First National Picture. At the Winter Garden.Missing: pre- | Show results with:pre-
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1931-32 Academy Award Nominations & Winners
Five Star Final, First National. Winner marker Grand Hotel, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. One Hour with You, Paramount Publix. Shanghai Express, Paramount Publix ...
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1931-32 Academy Awards® Winners and History - Filmsite.org
... Five Star Final (with one nomination) about a ruthless newspaper editor; director King Vidor's The Champ (with four nominations and two wins - Best Actor and ...
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Hollywood's Messy Tradition of Newspaper Yarns
Dec 17, 2022 · The reference was probably to Robert McFadden, publisher of the New York Evening Graphic, but William Randolph Hearst took it personally, having ...
[38]
How a New York Tabloid Captured the First Photo of an Execution ...
Jan 12, 2023 · In January 1928, Tom Howard of the “Daily News” smuggled a camera into Sing Sing, where he snapped a picture of Ruth Snyder's final moments.
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Ruth Snyder (1891–1928) - SpringerLink
The photo printed on the front page of the Daily News on Friday, 13th January 1928, boosted its circulation by half a million that day, but the coverage of the ...
[40]
Press: Death Pictures - Time Magazine
Exception was the Ruth Snyder execution in 1928, when the tabloid New York Daily News attained a U. S. circulation record of 1,556,000 by front-paging a ...Missing: boost 1920s
[41]
The Tabloid That Launched America's Obsession With True Crime
Sep 16, 2022 · The story of how America's first tabloid brought us the culture of true crime, scandal, and celebrity that we live with today.
[42]
Sensationalism in America - Comm455/History of Journalism
Sep 25, 2012 · Sensationalism in the United States began with the creation of The Penny Press. Like the name suggests, penny press papers cost one penny per paper.
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NEWS PAPER SPIRES WALKTHROUGH - The Skyscraper Museum
The first year's circulation was only around 26,000, but by 1920 the tabloid style had caught on, and the News printed two 20-page issues a day, selling 150,000 ...
[44]
[PDF] Facts, truth, and bad journalists in the movies
Five Star Final. (1931) was based on a Broadway play by Louis Weitzenkorn, a onetime tabloid newspaper editor. ... Weitzenkorn, Louis (1931) Five Star Final. New ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[45]
Five Star Final (1931): Edward G. Robinson and Yellow Journalism
Apr 20, 2022 · Five Star Final has its place among a bevy of real-world Journalism movies as perpetuated by Hollywood in the Pre-Code era.Missing: plot | Show results with:plot
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[PDF] Hollywood and Journalistic Truthtelling - NDLScholarship
Feb 9, 2014 · Media ethics professor Lee Wilkins notes that 'journalists are often called upon to make decisions based on a morally mature interpretation of ...Missing: analysis | Show results with:analysis
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[PDF] journalistic criticism of journalism 1865-1930
This study examined journalistic press criticism between 1865 and 1930. It sought to understand how the first modern journalists conceived of their profession ...<|separator|>
[48]
The Hero-Leader Matrix in Business and Cinema
Feb 11, 2016 · This paper will attempt to clearly define the ethical performance of heroes that is perhaps shared by the imagination industry (hollywood) and the workplace on ...Missing: journalism | Show results with:journalism
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Five Star Final (1931) Trailer | Edward G. Robinson, Boris Karloff
Apr 9, 2025 · Five Star Final is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film about the ... Hearst was greatly offended by the film, which he interpreted as a ...<|separator|>
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[PDF] FACT OR FICTION: HOLLYWOOD LOOKS AT THE NEWS
Five Star Final (1931), one of the first talking pictures to vigorously condemn the yellow press of the day, was based on a Broadway play by Louis Weitzenkorn ...
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Two Against the World (1936) - IMDb
Rating 6.1/10 (742) Though the central players give sincere performances, TWO AGAINST THE WORLD pales in comparison to FIVE STAR FINAL. It is interesting to note both Henry O ...
[52]
Two Against the World (1936) - Classic Film Guide
Two Against the World (1936) ... Directed by William McGann, this inferior remake to the Academy Award nominated Best Picture Five Star Final (1931) replaces ...
[53]
REMAKE AVENUE: Five Star Final, 1931 and Two Against the World ...
Jun 22, 2020 · Stone abetted by the despicable Isopod played by Boris Karloff and Miss Carmody played by Ona Munson. ... Review of Norbert Aping's book THE FINAL ...Missing: Twisted | Show results with:Twisted
[54]
Two Against the World (1936) movie review
Rating 2.0 · Review by Frank ShowalterTwo Against the World ... A remake of Five Star Final. Humphrey Bogart plays the manager of a struggling radio station whose boss pushes him to air a “Where are ...
[55]
Bad Guys, Good Guys: Journalists in the Movies - The New York Times
Oct 13, 1997 · ''Five Star Final,'' made in 1931, the same year as ''The Front Page,'' depicts a thoroughly despicable reporter who lies, steals and pretends ...
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The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture: An Interview with Joe ...
Jun 29, 2010 · One of the most vicious portrayals of the journalist, for example, is Five Star Final made in 1931. The final shot in the film is the ...Missing: influence depictions
[57]
[PDF] Portrayal of Journalism in Films
The Picture Snatcher [Motion Picture]. United States: Warner Bros. LeRoy, M. (Director). (1931). Five Star Final [Motion Picture]. United States: First.
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[PDF] hollywood and journalistic truthtelling matthew c. ehrlich
FIVE STAR FINAL (First National-Warner Brothers 1931). 3. Page 4. indictment of the press, whereas the opposite may be true.
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Edward G. Robinson Spotlight: Five Star Final - Film Perspective
Dec 19, 2015 · Five Star Final is a brilliant expose on yellow journalism. Having ... ethical journalistic policies have caused a drop in circulation.