Five Star Final

This holds up quite well in a lot of ways. It's a pretty standard story attacking reckless tabloid journalism, but Robinson's presence elevates it and there are some very good touches. There's one scene that is a three way split screen that is quite interesting, especially for the time. Starr chews a bit too much scenery at times, but it's a good film, and it's fun to see a pre-horror icon Boris Karloff in a film released two months before Frankenstein.

This zippy little pre-code comedy/drama seems fairly innocuous until some pretty shocking stuff happens in the final act and the whole thing explodes in dramatic conflict. Marsh, in particular, gets a gangbusters little scene, screaming at Robinson and Karloff. It's one hell of an entertaining watch, with an unsurprisingly great performance from Robinson and a really atypical one from Karloff.

83.000

This turned out to be a wonderful gutter press story with the great Edward G. Robinson as the direct speaking editor! And with Boris Karloff in a rather different kind of role for him as the soft spoken drunken kiss-up reporter. While some of the acting from the Townsend family was a bit sentimental and weak, the rest of the movie and the way the story ran was real quality and made a strong impression.