Am I Missing Something?

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Another Overrated Howard Hawks Film. Here are Two Examples when that "Hawksian" Touch just about makes the Movie Unbearable. First in the Opening Scene Two Policemen are Playing Cards and one loses 42 cents. They are Called Out on a Case, They Argue about 42 cents in the Police Station, out the door, in the car, out of the car, and into the Crime Scene. This is not Entertaining, Funny, or Natural. It is Howard Hawks just being His Obnoxious Self.The Second Thing. He Allows Walter Huston to say "Yeah" Every time He Opens His Mouth. He Prefaces Sentences with "Yeah", He Ends Sentences with "Yeah", He says "Yeah" in the Middle of Sentences, and He says "Yeah" just for Emphasis. This is Hawks Once Again Annoying Audiences with His Style Until They Scream for Relief.The Rest of the Movie is Not Bad. Boris Karloff Steals the Show as a Truly Scary Looking Inmate and some of the Mugs in the Yard are some Hard Bitten Characters (No Blacks). The Film is Talky and some of the Conversations go on for Ever and the Dated Dialog Deliveries can be Cumbersome at Times, but Overall it is Worth a Watch for an Example of Early Hollywood despite Everything the Director does to Drive You Away.

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.

103: The Criminal Code (1931) - released 1/3/31, viewed 6/25/08.DOUG: Howard Hawks was no mere studio director; looking at his credits, he appears to have made at least one great entry in every genre in circulation during the studio era, including this provocative look at the prison system in the 1930's. It's definitely a movie of its time: a product of the early sound era, so there's almost no music; the bad guys wield Tommy Guns; references crop up to the Great Depression, WWI, and the rise of organized crime. The standouts are Walter Huston as a no-nonsense DA-turned prison warden, Philips Holms as the man wrongly convicted and sent to prison, and Boris Karloff as a sadistic convict with a score to settle. Huston easily gives the best performance here, with Karloff sneering and growling and chewing scenery while looking really big and scary. Holms, our would-be hero, spends most of the movie looking rather docile and unmemorable, while either Huston or Karloff tower over him. I'm hoping for some kind of Howard Hawks DVD box set that would include this movie along with The Crowd Roars.KEVIN: This film would've opened 1931, just ahead of Little Caesar. This year, morals and ideals are tested to their limits as director Howard Hawks tackles the gritty prison drama. This film is definitely better than The Big House, which is campy by comparison. Walter Huston is very good, as expected, playing a former district attorney who is appointed as the new warden of a maximum security prison. It is never explained why a city District Attorney has been demoted to a prison warden, and Huston's performance gives the sense that the character doesn't really consider it a demotion. Portraying the sympathetic face of the wronged convict, Phillip Holmes does fine job of selling his character's dilemma, although I had a hard time understanding why Graham clings so much to the code of the inmates when letting that go and confessing what he witnessed would allow him to go free. I didn't believe that what he was doing was right, but I was convinced that he believed it. Constance Cummings was good too, although I think more could've been done with her character. I really wanted to see her turn Graham around and bring him all the way back to the land of truth and morals. And of course, I have to mention the excellently creepy Boris Karloff, whose character comes through as the lead heartless scumbag. By the way, Huston's character does a move here that we would see again in Gabriel Over the White House, when he strolls through a crowd of people that despise him without getting a scratch or batting an eyelash. **SPOILER** I was disappointed with the climax. Graham doesn't confess, but he still manages to come through clean. It seemed like a missed opportunity.**END SPOILER**.Last film viewed: Monte Carlo (1930). Last film chronologically: Morocco (1930). Next film viewed: The Smiling Lieutenant (1931). Next film chronologically: Little Caesar (1931).

Sometimes you seem to get into a position where you have to take your medicine for an even unintended actions. That is what happens to poor 20-year-old Bob Graham, and within 10 minutes into the movie, he's in the infinite world of prison, where he must learn yet another set of codes of the criminal sort. Creepy Ned Galloway (Boris Karloff just before his "Frankenstein" turn) takes a rather minor (at least early on) role and fills it with gusto (maybe its that creepy little haircut) in a claustrophobic cell. Later, he does the right thing for rehabilitated and soon-to-be-paroled (maybe) Graham, who does not violate the titular Criminal Code (since he's still a con).James Whale wanted Karloff for his monster after seeing Boris in this flick, and after you see it, you'll know why.BTW, who doesn't love a good prison movie yarn, and with Karloff in it, it rates a "9."