mark.waltz Accidentally killing a man in a drunken brawl, 20 year old Phillips Holmes gets 10 years for manslaughter. Unable to forget the loss of freedom, he manages to get a job as trustee for new warden Walter Huston who happens to be the former D.A. who sent him and a bunch of other inmates to prison in the first place. Falling in love with Huston's daughter, he gets deep into prison intrigue which threatens his chance at parole.Brilliantly acted and nicely paced, thus is crisp crime drama from a different perspective than others released around the same time. Huston, one of the best film actors of the golden age, is a law enforcer with a strict morale conscience, at one point giving his perspective on how he could get Holmes off if he wasn't defense attorney. Boris Karloff has a prominent supporting role as one if the darker of inmates who will give an old lady a knock out drug to reach his nefarious goals.One of the spooky moments comes with the revenge he seeks on a snitch and the countdown to retribution. Every performance is dead on, with moments of tension that are brilliantly scripted. It gets even grittier than MGM's hit prison movie "The Big House". For a film made by B studio Columbia before they moved to near the top, this is a total classic of the crime drama genre, giving an indication of what film noir would look like more than a decade later.

MissSimonetta The Criminal Code (1931) is often passed over when it comes to discussion of the films of Howard Hawks, but it's actually one of my favorites from him.There are a lot of stagey aspects to be sure and the central love story is pretty boring, but there's just so much to love. The film experiments with sound, overlapping dialogue and using crowd noise as a plot element.The two standout actors are Walter Huston and a pre-stardom Boris Karloff. Anytime either of them walks on screen, everyone else just evaporates. Huston does a great job making the audience love and despise his character. And Karloff is just mesmerizing as Galloway, a convict hell-bent on vengeance.No masterpiece, but it is an early sign of Hawks' genius. And I would take it over Bringing Up Baby (1938) and His Girl Friday (1940) any day of the week.

kidboots Although when Howard Hawks died in 1977, his reputation was described as legendary, when he was actually making movies he was often referred to as a good all round director, specialising in men's movies ie "The Dawn Patrol" and "Red River". "The Criminal Code" is one of his lesser known films (maybe because he was uncredited as director). It is simply a superlative film that is dominated by powerhouse performances by Walter Huston, Phillips Holmes and Boris Karloff. Holmes acting was occasionally flat in films but when he was given the right role he was fantastic as he definitely was here. "The Criminal Code", which opened on Broadway in 1929 and lasted a very respectable 179 performances, was another acting honor for Walter Huston. He plays Mark Brady, a wiley District Attorney, who finds himself Warden of the State Prison, populated by many of the men who he had "sent up". One of these is Robert Graham, sent to prison for 10 years for manslaughter only because Brady feels compassion for Robert ("do they ever call you "Bob") knowing he killed in self defence.After six years Robert is at breaking point - he is desperate to experience freedom and when his cell mate talks of escape Robert wants to go with him. When Adams becomes Warden, on the doctor's advice that he sees something fine in Robert, Adams takes him out of the jute mill and puts him to work as a chauffeur. Within three months, with the help of Mary (Constance Cummings) the Warden's daughter, Robert is "mended". The escape still goes ahead, without Robert, but is thwarted , thanks to a stool pigeon, Runch (Clark Marshall). When Runch is killed, the officers and Warden try to break Robert, who saw the murder, but he is standing by the criminal code - not the book that happens to be Adam's bible but the code of the criminal, that he will not rat on his comrades.I felt that Walter Huston's best scenes were - 1. when he was interviewing Robert's dance partner (Mary Doran) and with a few "yeahs" and "you don't say" strips off her innocent facade to expose her as the floozie she is. 2. On his first day braves a "yammering" from the hostile men to walk into the prison yard. Boris Karloff seemed to have more a variety of roles in the early 30s. Here he plays a menacing but essentially decent criminal albeit with a grudge, who from the first tries to help Bob. An unintentionally funny scene occurs when he is serving tea to Mary's aunt(?). She says something about "not creeping up on her like that" and he replies "Sorry Madam" in his best Frankenstein's Monster voice. Apparently James Whale saw Boris Karloff in "The Criminal Code" and thought he would be the perfect Monster!!! Constance Cummings was excellent in her first film, even though the film essentially belonged to the three male stars. She played her role in a very understated way and she was noticed.Highly, Highly Recommended.

sol ***SPOILERS*** Howard Hawks Crime & Punishment drama about upholding the Criminal Code in the court system as well as behind bars.It's when 20 year old Bob Graham got into a fight at the notorious New York City speakeasy Spelvins over his date Gertrude Williams with Young Parker that he ended up cracking Parker's skull open with a water bottle killing him. Despite Parker initiating the violence by trying to pull something out of his back pocket, which turned out to be a handkerchief, Graham was handed down by the local D.A Mark Brady a 10 year sentence at Sing Sing Prison for manslaughter.The broken young man-Bob Graham- with no future to look froward too is now in with the most dangerous criminals around, murderers armed robbers rapists and just plain Nogoodnicks. Graham also has to endure ten years of total hell and at the same time follow the code of the prison and suffer the consequences if he doesn't. Sent to work in the prison's jute mill Garham starts to come apart and is soon examined by the prison doctor Rinewulf who advised the prison warden and former NYC D.A, who sent Graham away in the first place, Brady to get Graham out of the Jute mill before he ends up either killing himself or a fellow convict or even prison guard!It's when Graham is giving the cushy job as Warden Brady's personal driver and delivery boy that his miserable life suddenly turns around for the better. Cleaned up from the muck that filled his lungs in the jute mill Graham also falls in love with Warden Brady's young daughter Mary, Constance Cummings, who also took a liking to the sensitive and handsome young man. Now a model prisoner Warden Brady works hard to get Graham an early out, or pardon, so he can be able to start his shattered life back again.***SPOILERS*** It's when one of Graham's cell-mates Jim Fales tries to break out of prison and is shot down due to him being ratted by his fellow escapee Runch, who got cold feet, that his now improved lifestyle took a drastic turn for the worst! As the criminal or prison code dictates Runch ended up getting wasted despite all the efforts by Warden Brady to keep him as safe and far away from his fellow, and vindictive, convicts as possible! Grahm is arrested for Runch's murder not in that he had anything to do in getting Runch killed but in that he later covered up the identity of the convict Ned Galloway, Boris Karloff, who murdered him. Galloway's action has Graham holding the bag in Runch's murder and is now facing not a pardon but a lifetime sentence, if he's lucky, behind bars or him being executed in Sing Sing's electric chair!Heart wrenching prison drama that leaves you emotionally drained in Graham's predicament in the murder of that snitch Runch that he's totally innocent of! In a round about way it's non other then Runch's killer Galloway who in the end straightens thing out for the hard luck, in the raw deal that life gave him, Bob Graham. Seeing that Graham was willing to take to rap for what he did Galloway with no hope of ever seeing freedom again takes the opportunity to both settle matters with the person who, like the dead Runch, snitched him back behind bars as well as exonerate Graham of the murder that he committed! And the way Galloway ended up doing that was with his very life!