What do I mean by primitive? Well, there was a certain period of time, starting right about when this film was made, through perhaps 1935 that the new business of talkies began maturing. It varied a great deal during that 4-5 year period, but slowly movies were getting better scripts and better actors. Unfortunately, that maturation had not yet come to the folks who made "Five Star Final". So for me, that would be a death knell.
But two other factors 'saved' the film for me. First, an interesting cast (including early performances by Edward G. Robinson and Boris Karloff) and a fdw select scenes that were dramatically done.
Let's start with the actors. Earlier that year Robinson had hit the big time with his portrayal of "Little Caesar", and here he continued to show real promise...and not as a gangster. Karloff is another matter. Awkward at best, almost embarrassingly so. I was interested in seeing H. B. Warner, a character actor some might remember from "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Lost Horizon"; he's okay here. Aline MacMahon is good as the secretary, but then again she was always good in early films. The rest of the actors do their jobs, some good, some not so good.
The plot is interesting: a city paper exploits a family, the mother of which was once involved in a murder case. And the results are tragic...enuf said...watch the film. It's handled pretty well, but there are a couple of scenes that were, frankly, ahead of their time...including the scene where the mother goes to...well, again, watch the film. But that scene is a humdinger in the way that they filmed it!
I do need to single out one actor for what I thought might very well be the worst acting job in the history of American cinema -- Anthony Bushell. He seems to have been around for a long time, although I wasn't familiar with him. But here...he stunk!
This is a great, though primitive, look at yellow journalism. And it's deadly serious. I wish I could give it at least a '7', but it's just not sophisticated enough to earn higher than a '6'.
But two other factors 'saved' the film for me. First, an interesting cast (including early performances by Edward G. Robinson and Boris Karloff) and a fdw select scenes that were dramatically done.
Let's start with the actors. Earlier that year Robinson had hit the big time with his portrayal of "Little Caesar", and here he continued to show real promise...and not as a gangster. Karloff is another matter. Awkward at best, almost embarrassingly so. I was interested in seeing H. B. Warner, a character actor some might remember from "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Lost Horizon"; he's okay here. Aline MacMahon is good as the secretary, but then again she was always good in early films. The rest of the actors do their jobs, some good, some not so good.
The plot is interesting: a city paper exploits a family, the mother of which was once involved in a murder case. And the results are tragic...enuf said...watch the film. It's handled pretty well, but there are a couple of scenes that were, frankly, ahead of their time...including the scene where the mother goes to...well, again, watch the film. But that scene is a humdinger in the way that they filmed it!
I do need to single out one actor for what I thought might very well be the worst acting job in the history of American cinema -- Anthony Bushell. He seems to have been around for a long time, although I wasn't familiar with him. But here...he stunk!
This is a great, though primitive, look at yellow journalism. And it's deadly serious. I wish I could give it at least a '7', but it's just not sophisticated enough to earn higher than a '6'.