Watch The Criminal Code For Free

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Captivating movie !

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The Criminal Code explores the issue of turning a normal person who made a mistake into a criminal through time spent in prison and ends up abiding by the criminal code itself. The same subject matter is also explored in the movie Caged made 19 later; nothing seems to change. Robert Graham (Phillip Homles) is a sheltered pretty boy who got a rotten break (similar to Robert Montgomery in The Big House). However unlike Montgomery in The Big House, Graham is put in a cell with two guys (including Boris Karloff's Galloway) who look out for him. Although you do have to suspend your disbelief a bit over the movie fast forwarding six years and Graham not being remotely criminalised within that time. Among the film's examination of the American legal and penal system, Walter Huston explains how it would be possible for someone to get off the hook for a crime such as manslaughter; "A year's delay, a new trial, the witnesses would fade away, they always do, the whole mess would get cold, the paper's would have something else to yap about. I'd get him off; he'd never serve a day". Great thought provoking stuff.Walter Huston plays the warden of the unnamed prison. He is stern but fair and a real "Yes sir!" type as evident from his first appearance with the manner in which he addresses a female witness ("Never mind that, pull down the shade"). The man is one lightening fast talker who can interrogate like a boss but his greatest of moment on badassery comes from the scene in which he goes into the prison yard to confront protesting, yammering prisoners face to face without any guards. Just look at the way he walks into the yard and lights up a cigar. As he approaches the prisoners the yammering stops and they don't lay a hand on him. Simply put, this guy is badass. Perhaps unrealistically so but that's why we have movies.The Criminal Code was Boris Karloff's first significant screen role in the part of Galloway. With his dominating, tall, lanky figure he steals the show; his monologue on why's he's in the slammer with the shadows across his face is hair raising stuff. Galloway has a vengeance with a guard named Gleason which gives the film some dark comic relief such as the two awkwardly passing each other on the stairs to Karloff's recurring use of the lines "I don't like you" and "I got an appointment with you". Likewise the other memorable cast member, albeit in a very brief role is Andy Devine who is very hard to miss with that highly distinctive voice of his.The Criminal Code uses the same set created for MGM's The Big House released the year before. With its more intricate cinematography the film doesn't capture the sense of claustrophobia seen in The Big House but still captures the mundanity of prison life. As an early talkie there is no music present in The Criminal Code but rather the sound of prisoners marching along with various other sound effects are just as effective as any music score could be. The Criminal Code is also host to one of the most shocking moments in pre-code cinema (and was even featured in Karloff film Targets from 1968). When Galloway chases a squealer into a room while yammering is going on in the background from the prison yard, Galloway walks into the room with the squealer cornered as he slowly closes the door as the squealer looks on in terror. What happens next is up to the viewer's imagination.

Forgotten today, despite being directed by the well regarded Howard Hawks, "The Criminal Code" is a 1931 crime film starring Walter Huston as a District attorney who convicts a young law intern (Phillips Holmes) for ten years. As he feels guilty, Huston later offers the recently-released young man work as a valet.Based on Pulitzer Prize winner Martin Flavin's stage play, the film's title has a double meaning, referring both to a district attorney's law-book and the "code of the streets", the unwritten, unspoken codes to which criminals adhere. Much of the film thus finds these two rule books clashing, Walter Huston playing a by-the-books attorney, and the legendary Boris Karloff playing his mirror image. Caught between them is Holmes' character, who must choose between loyalty to the prison yard and loyalty to his new benefactor.The film sports fine, raw performances by Phillips Holmes and Constance Cummings, but is mostly thin and theatrical. Hawks preferred to remain uncredited for his work here.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing.

DA Brady sends young Graham to prison unjustly, and must redeem himself once he becomes the prison's warden.The credits indicate icon Howard Hawks as the director; IMDb uncharacteristically lists no one; while Hawks' bio-site states he's the uncredited helmsman. I include this rather puzzling movie pedigree because I see very little of Hawks' characteristic style on screen. He may well have been adjusting to the new factor of sound (as others point out), but whatever the reason, the screenplay could have been filmed by any number of solid Hollywood craftsmen. The movie itself has been made several times over, so the material is familiar. But except for Huston's dynamic performance and Karloff's formidable presence, there's not much to recommend beyond the story itself. The prison yard scenes are riveting with their marching phalanxes of inmates. Sort of like a non-musical Busby Berkeley. I also like that early scene where DA Brady (Huston) strips away shady lady Gertie's thin façade of respectability. To me, its spirited air bespeaks Hawks' guiding hand, as does Brady's surprisingly intense grilling of Graham. However, what should be a highlight, Ned's (Karloff) revenge killing of the squealer, is unnecessarily down-played for this pre-Code period.Note how we're led to respect the inmates' code of conduct even though they are convicted criminals. Both the law and the inmates have their respective codes, but more importantly, the codes may well be linked by a common sense of justice. When, for example, those codes are broken by the squealer, on one hand, and by head guard Gleason, on the other, we're led to sympathize with the respective acts of retribution, bloody though they undoubtedly are. And since both acts are carried out by the hulking Ned, he becomes something of an avenging angel despite his gruesome appearance. It's the ambiguities of the two codes, united, perhaps, by a common sense of justice that suggests an interesting subtext to the story.Anyway, in my little book, this is a Walter Huston showcase, proving again that an actor of less than handsome appearance could carry a Hollywood movie.

I would say it is THE best except for my fondness for "Caged." This is a brilliant movie, as shocking as Hawks's "Scarface," released a year later and far better known.Walter Huston is a district attorney when we met him. Throughout, he is given to the one word, catchall statement or response "Yeah." Huston has rarely if ever been better -- and he was one of the greats of Hollywood history.Phillips Holmes is excellent as a young man he sends to prison. He is innocent in all senses before he gets there. But he quickly leans the code of the title.Constance Cummins isn't given much as Huston's daughter but she is appealing. However, Boris Karloff gives one of his very finest performances as a tough but decent prisoner. Of course, of course he is fine in "Frankenstein." And he is wildly brilliant in "Lured" many years later. Here he gives a solid, unadorned, moving performance.Clark Marshall, a name I do not recognize, is also fine. He plays a sniveling, conniving inmate. And DeWitt Jennings is shocking as a brutal guard.Amazingly, I had never seen this movie before tonight. It's bone I will want to see again; and I urge you to see it, too.