Memorable, crazy movie

A Masterpiece!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Howard Hawks directs this terrific crime drama based on a play by Martin Flavin. Walter Huston plays the wily District Attorney Mark Brady, who fashions a 10 year conviction of a young man, Robert Graham(Phillips Holmes)who he knows for a fact killed a man in self defense. After a failed run for the governorship, Brady becomes the warden of the prison holding Graham. Brady wants to give the young man a break after serving 6 years of his term and is bitter and almost burnt out. Graham is given a valet's job for the warden. In no time the prisoner's actions earns the respect of the warden and his lovely daughter Mary(Constance Cummings). The young man is only days away from a pardon and is put in the hard position of snitching or not snitching on a cell-mate named Galloway(Boris Karloff). Coming into play is not the criminal code, but the prison code of silence. The film is well directed and the photography is superb. Supporting cast includes: DeWitt Jennings, John Sheehan, Mary Doran and Otto Hoffman.

In The Criminal Code the bywords of District Attorney Walter Huston is that where there is a crime, someone has to pay. Or if you can't do the time, don't do the crime as a later philosopher named Tony Baretta opined. And it's Huston's job to set the price when he prosecutes.But Huston recognizes that young Phillips Holmes with a proper criminal defense attorney might do little time or even be acquitted. He smashed some poor guy's head in with a full bottle of bootleg hooch when he thought he was going for a gun. Still Holmes is convicted and he gets a ten year sentence.Fast forward several years and Huston is no longer the District Attorney, he's now the warden of the prison that Holmes is incarcerated. Huston gives Holmes a chance and he makes him a trustee. Huston's daughter Constance Cummings even falls for Holmes.But they have a different code among the convicts in prison and the biggest commandment is thou shalt not rat. When Boris Karloff does a particular rat in Holmes almost takes the fall for it because of that code.The leads do a fine job in this, but the performances of Boris Karloff as the hardened convict and Clark Marshall as his victim really do stand out in The Criminal Code. Marshall especially, you can really feel his fear in his performance.Beginning originally as a Broadway play, The Criminal Code was remade twice by Columbia Pictures, Harry Cohn not being one to let a good property go to waste. The two remakes are Penitentiary with Walter Connolly and John Howard and Convicted with Broderick Crawford and Glenn Ford.The film holds up very well because the themes are eternal. Criminals have to pay the price when caught and rats are just as unpopular as ever.

Criminal Code, The (1931) *** (out of 4)Terrific acting highlights this pre-code prison-drama about an overbearing D.A. (Walter Huston) who sidelines an innocent man (Phillips Holmes) into prison where he learns the "criminal code" way of doing things. The D.A. eventually becomes the prison warden where he runs into contact with many of the men he sent away including the innocent one who will once again find himself at the wrong place during the wrong time. There's no question this Columbia film was made to cash in on the previous years THE BIG HOUSE but that doesn't mean we get a watered-down copy. Instead director Hawks takes a pretty simple storyline and adds various dimensions simply by showing the stuff in a raw and realistic detail. THE BIG HOUSE is certainly a classic but to me this is the better film of the two. What makes this film work so well are some amazing performances with Huston leading the way. There was no one in Hollywood better for a role like this and God knows that Huston played his fair share of hot-tempered, "my way only" type of characters. He brings a lot of energy to the role and manages to make the character very memorable with a performance that many would copy in the future. Another major plus is the supporting performance of Boris Karloff who pretty much steals the film. Karloff has an uncanny and natural performance that brings a certain rawness as well as a coldness that is a real joy to watch. He's the type of bad guy here you just want to love. Constance Cummings plays Huston's daughter and she's pretty good even though the screenplay offers her very little except to be a love interest for Holmes. As for Holmes, I think he gives a good performance but I'd say he's several notches below both Huston and Karloff. Again, it's a fine performance but at the same time if they had someone on the same level as the other two men the film might have been even better. Hawks makes the film as realistic and as raw as he can, which I guess you could say was a trademark during this early portion of his career. I think the film gets off to a somewhat slow start but picks up at the twenty-minute mark and pretty much sails home. The final thirty-minutes are pure Hawks magic and are the most powerful of these early prison films.

***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!