The Criminal Code

Infobox Film
name = The Criminal Code


caption = Original publicity poster
director = Howard Hawks
producer = Harry Cohn
Frank Fouce
writer = Martin Flavin (play)
Fred Niblo, Jr.
Seton I. Miller
starring = Walter Huston
Phillips Holmes
cinematography = James Wong Howe
Ted Tetzlaff
editing = Edward Curtiss
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = January 3, 1931
runtime = 97 minutes
country = flagicon|USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0021770

"The Criminal Code" (released January 3, 1931) is a Hollywood crime film, directed by Howard Hawks, based on a play by Martin Flavin with cinematic adaptation by screenwriters Seton I. Miller and Fred Niblo, Jr.

Introduction

Shot in black-and-white, the picture stars Walter Huston as District Attorney Martin Brady, who gets a dapper young law intern named Robert Graham, played by Phillips Holmes, convicted for ten years. Brady privately admits he knows the supposed crime — killing another young man in a nightclub — was done in self-defense. Unfortunately for Graham, the victim was the governor's son and the perspicacious albeit wily attorney takes his work and the criminal code seriously. There must be some form of retribution. "An eye for an eye," he states as his motto, as well as the underlying theme of the story.

Several years and a career change later, as warden of the penitentiary holding Graham, Brady meets the woebegone prisoner, who appears to be on the brink of a nervous breakdown, and is moved to help him somehow. Meanwhile, Graham has discovered a whole other criminal code in prison. These two codes finally confront one another and force the main characters (and the audience) most aggressively to reconsider their morals. Like other prison films of the 1930s, such as "San Quentin" and "Each Dawn I Die", "The Criminal Code" encouraged its viewers to question the contemporary American legal and penal systems.

The film also features Constance Cummings as Mary Brady, the warden's daughter, DeWitt Jennings as Yard Captain Gleason, and, reprising his onstage role as Ned Galloway, one of Graham's two cellmates, English-born actor Boris Karloff, who gives an electrifying proto-Frankenstein performance. He would be cast only a few months later as James Whale's infamous screen monster.

Synopsis

Six years of stress and hard labor working in the prison jute mill has taken its toll on young Robert Graham. The penitentiary's resident doctor and psychiatrist recommends that Warden Brady see him and proposes that he offer him a drastic change of environment and duties before his psychological damages become irreversible. When the warden realizes who the inmate is, or rather was, and recalls that it was he that helped put him behind bars (as with many of the prisoners), he agrees to give him a chance and offers him a job as his valet. Graham enjoys his new employment, especially since he is frequently in the company of the warden's pretty young daughter, Mary. He improves in general character and demeanor and regains his morale.

Meanwhile, one of Graham's cellmates tries to escape at night with two other prisoners. One turns out to be a stool pigeon, breaking the Prisoner's Code of silence and lures the men into a death trap. The guards brutally shoot down and kill Graham's cellmate. Ned Galloway, Graham's other cellmate, vows to venge this death and, more importantly, punish the violator of the unwritten code. He develops an elaborate plan secretly to murder the culprit and carefully warns Graham to stay away from the man. Ill-fated Graham, of course, walks in on the crime no one was supposed to witness.

Upon finding Graham with the dead body, the perspicacious warden again knows that Graham is not the murderor. He does however clearly see that Graham knows who committed the crime. Promising him a speedy parole, though his sincerity is somewhat doubtful, the warden pushes Graham to reveal the name of the killer. He is morally torn. Still an inmate, Graham cannot bring himself to go against the Prisoner's Code and remains loyal to Galloway and the other inmates, who in this case represent the Hawksian group, an ever-present theme in the director's films. The situation also deeply troubles Brady, who feels impelled to send Graham to "the hole," hoping it will change his mind.

A week or so later, after a short trip, Mary returns home to the penitentiary and is surprised not to see Graham working as valet. Her surprise turns to shock when she finds out where Graham has been sent. She urges her father to release him. The warden criticizes his daughter for her naïveté, but reconsiders her plea once she proclaims her love for Graham. Along with Gleason and a few guards, he descends into the prison dungeon to let out the devastated prisoner. The other inmates logically think that Graham has spoken the name of the killer. Having previously smuggled a pocket knife down to another man in the hole, they hope Graham will be punished for squealing.

Galloway, on the other hand, understands what is really happening. He purposely insults a guard in the jute mill and is promptly sent downstairs faithfully to protect his cellmate and loyal friend. Once in the dungeon, he kills the other prisoner and, in addition, cuts Gleason's throat. (The Yard Captain was, in fact, the man responsible for Galloway's lengthy incarceration). The other guards finally shoot him down. Graham, safe and unharmed, is immediately sent up to see Mary Brady. The two lovers embrace passionately for the first time.

Background and Analysis

"The Criminal Code" was adapted for the screen by Seton I. Miller and Fred Niblo, Jr., son of director Fred Niblo. The original play by San Francisco Bay Area native author and playwright Martin Flavin was produced on Broadway in 1929 at the Belasco Theater. Boris Karloff, who delivered a strong performance in the stage play, is recast here as Galloway. This film served as the vehicle which would essentially launch his career. Though appearing in dozens of pictures during the 1920s, he had mostly bit parts.

The film is the first of two collaborations with infamously foul-mouthed producer Harry Cohn, the second being "Twentieth century"(1934). It is Hawks' only picture with Frank Fouce, who produced only five films, all of them in 1931. Hawks worked with screenwriter Seton Miller several times in the late 1920s and early 1930s. This is the only occasion he worked with Niblo, Jr.

"The Criminal Code" was remade the following year in France as "Criminel", directed by Jack Forrester, starring Daniel Mendaille and Harry Baur.

Though an early talkie, "The Criminal Code" makes a sophisticated use of sound. The intercourse is at times rapid and Hawks seems to be experimenting with overlapping dialogue.

Hawks easily exploits the prison genre to illustrate the male friendship and 'group as an organic force' themes often present in his works (cf. "Only Angels Have Wings", "Rio Bravo" and "Air Force"). This is most apparent in the scene in which Brady starts his first day of work as warden, greeted by a prison yard full of men booing him as if they were but one man. The warden (and the camera) peer down on them from the office window.

Constance Cummings is a far cry from, say Lauren Bacall, and has little to work with here, a small part with lackluster lines. Nonetheless, she does not fail to represent the typical Hawksian woman. Her character is strong and, to a certain degree, stoic. She inhabits an utterly masculine world. Yet, although she can leave, she prefers to stay and live at the penitentiary (cf. Mary Rutledge in "Barbary Coast").

Main Cast

*Walter Huston as Martin Brady
*Phillips Holmes as Robert Graham
*Constance Cummings as Mary Brady
*Boris Karloff as Ned Galloway
*DeWitt Jennings as Yard Captain Gleason

ee also

* Boris Karloff filmography

External links

* [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A01E3DA163BE433A25756C0A9679C946094D6CF New York Times review, January 5, 1931]
* [http://imdb.com/title/tt0021770 IMDB profile]