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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Karloff in a Non-Horror Role, May 24, 2001
This review is from: Criminal Code [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Anyone who reads any of my reviews knows that I'm a rabid Boris Karloff fan. He could read the telephone book and I'd love it. However, as much as I enjoy his many and varied horror roles, it's nice once in awhile to see him do something non-horror related, and to be surrounded by a cast that isn't made up of "the usual suspects" (such as Ernest Thesinger or Edward Van Sloan). (Don't get me wrong - I LOVE these guys, but newer, different actors bring out new and different sides of Mr. Karloff.) One such film is "The Criminal Code", starring Walter Huston as a DA who convicts a young kid for an accidental murder, giving him 10 years in prison. Six years later, Huston is made warden of the very prison in which "the kid" is incarcerated - along with many other prisoners whom Huston "sent up". One of the kid's cellmates is Karloff, who sports an appropriately menacing expression and a severe prison buzz-cut. The kid falls in love with the warden's daughter (and she falls in love with him) and, when an attempted escape results in a respected prisoner's murder, the other inmates are out for the blood of the "squealer", a lame, snivling coward who's being protected in the warden's office. Karloff, however, gets to him and the kid finds out he did it, but, true to the other "criminal code", doesn't squeal on his cellmate and friend. All ends well though (except, perhaps, for Karloff). This is an extremely enjoyable movie. Huston's frequent growls of, "Yeah?" out of the corner of his mouth get to be downright funny (especially since nobody talks that way anymore) and the gentleman playing the sadistic prison guard with whom Karloff says he "has an appointment" (the guy ratted on Karloff years ago, resulting in Karloff being re-incarcerated for having a beer once he got out of prison the first time) is in turns viscious and hateful, especially when he starts harrassing the kid, who really is a decent guy who just got a bad break. Huston is a terrific actor, too, and I believe he is the father of John Huston and grandfather of Angelica. I'd never seen him act in anything before and was greatly impressed. A really enjoyable film, with Karloff being a heavy without being horrifying and actually getting to act. A great surrounding cast, too.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Early prison drama, October 10, 2010
This review is from: Criminal Code [VHS] (VHS Tape)
The Criminal Code is one of several films in the early 30s concerned with prison life. "The Big House" (1930) is probably the best of these flicks, along with "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" (1932) that focuses on another aspect of incarceration. Joan Crawford's "Paid" (1930) is another good example.
Walter Huston plays a DA who becomes a prison warden. At this point in his career, Huston was churning out films. He appeared in 4 films in 1931, 8 in 1932 and 5 in 1933. His performances are relatively undistinguished, even if some of the films (e.g., "Gabriel Over the White House") were hits. Huston got better as he got older, and he was nominated for an Oscar in 1937 ("Dodsworth"), 1942 ("Devil and Daniel Webster") and 1943 ("Yankee Doodle Dandy") and won in 1949 for "Treasure of the Sierra Madre". He died in 1950. His performance in "The Criminal Code" is enthusiastic (as usual) and better than his average work at this time.
Phillips Holmes plays a young man convicted of murder who is sentenced to 10 years in prison. Holmes made a good impression with "An American Tragedy" (1931) but was unable to parlay this into more meaningful roles. He moved to the stage but died in 1941 in a plane crash.
Constance Cummings co-stars as Huston's daughter who falls in love with Holmes. Cummings made more than 20 films between 1931 and 1934 then moved to the U.K. where she continued to act in films and on stage. In 1979 she won a Tony for her role in "Wings".
Boris Karloff plays an inmate. He was just a few months before his break out role in "Frankenstein" (1931), one of 15 films Karloff appeared in that year.
Andy Devine has an uncredited appearance as a convict. We know him best as Guy Madison's sidekick Jingles in "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickock" (1951-8).
Howard Hawks directs a Harry Cohn production for Columbia. Hawks directed nearly 50 films, not including the ones he resigned from or the ones he was fired from. He was nominated for an Oscar for Sergeant York (1941) and had 3 DGA nominations for his westerns ("Rio Bravo" in 1959, "The Big Sky" in 1952, and "Red River" in 1948). He was best known for his style of overlapping dialogue, a technique commonly used in screwball comedies. Hawks worked with Cohn once again on "Twentieth Century" (1934).
Harry Cohn headed the also ran Columbia studios and produced more than 200 films starting in 1919. Most were undistinguished and forgettable, until he struck gold with "It Happened One Night" (1934) and then the 3 Stooges.
The film focuses on " the code" and is the type of film that Hawks liked to make, concentrating on male bonding. Hawks visited this theme many times in films like "Only Angels Have Wings", "Sergeant York", "Red River", "Rio Bravo", and "El Dorado".
For students of sociology it's an interesting look at prison life circa 1920s, and for film enthusiasts it's a chance to see Huston and Karloff before they hit it big. Otherwise it's a pretty ordinary film.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good depression era prison film, April 14, 2009
This review is from: Criminal Code [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This particular film is not quite as good as 1930's "The Big House", but it comes close. Philip Holmes plays Robert Graham, a young man of twenty who gets into an altercation in a dance hall and ends up killing the other guy, someone he's never even met before. D.A. Mark Brady is played by Walter Huston. Brady is not a man without compassion. He even states how, were he the defense attorney, he would get the boy off without serving a day. As a result, he sends him up for manslaughter rather than murder. However, that is still ten years, and six years into the sentence Graham is a man who is losing hope and his sanity.
In an odd twist of fate D.A. Mark Brady becomes warden of the prison, a place inhabited by many of the men he helped convict. The prison doctor comes to Brady with a request - let Graham be Brady's private driver for awhile, to get him out of the prison factory. Brady agrees. A few short months later and Graham is beginning to have a new lease in life. Plus, there is a complication - he is falling in love with Brady's daughter. However, an event soon occurs at the prison that threatens Graham's hope for a better future.
Of course all classic movie fans are familiar with Walter Huston and his many abilities and roles. However, most people will not have heard of Philip Holmes. Partly this is because his early successes in film did not lead to better things as the 1930's progressed, and the rest of the reason is that many of his early successes occurred at Paramount, whose early films have been largely unseen for decades. This is worth checking out. The screenplay was nominated for an Oscar, and the performances are quite good.
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