Twenty year-old Robert Graham (Phillips Holmes) accidentally kills another man in a drunken brawl. District Attorney Mark Brady (Walter Huston) has to prosecute the young man, despite feeling sympathetic towards him. Graham is convicted to ten years in the state penitentiary. Six years later, D.A. Brady has been appointed warden of the prison and is appalled at what prison life has done to Graham. With help from his daughter (Constance Cummings), who falls in love with Graham, Brady gets the young man back on the right track. But all of it may come to naught when another prisoner is murdered and Graham is forced to choose between snitching and keeping quiet.

Phillips Holmes is not a name that most people, including myself, are familiar with. He retired from acting in 1938 and died in a mid-air collision in Canada four years later. This is probably his most well-known role and that's not saying much since this is hardly a well-known film. But he does a terrific job. Expectedly good performance from Walter Huston, arguably Hollywood's best actor in the early talkies. Also features Boris Karloff in one of his best pre-Frankenstein roles as a vengeful inmate who hates squealers.

Great early Howard Hawks crime drama. Nice Hawksian banter and overlapping dialogue, particularly in the early scenes with reporters. Remade twice, as Penitentiary in 1938 and Convicted in 1950. A must-see for fans of Hawks, Huston, and Karloff.

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.

Absolutely loved the idea for the story, which sounded suspenseful and intriguing. Howard Hawks did a lot of fine films, especially in screwball comedy and westerns. Walter Huston was a great actor, my first exposure to him being in Rene Clair's 'And Then There Were None' but my favourite performance of his is in 'Dodsworth'. Also have always liked Boris Karloff a lot since the 'Frankenstein' films and there are some fine prison films, including the film that this has been compared to 'The Big House'.

'The Criminal Code' on the whole was a good film, it was intriguing, suspenseful, well made and acted. Part of me did feel though that it could have been even better than it was with not everything coming off completely successfully, this did have potential to be a great film considering what it was seen for by me but ended up being a strong good one. Which is good enough, one can say.

Plenty of good things here in 'The Criminal Code' here. The two big pluses being the performances of Huston and Karloff. Huston has such a powerful presence and plays his part with dignity and eloquence. Karloff mesmerises even more, not many actors achieve a mix of menacing and moving and not only balance them beautifully but excel at each individually but Karloff does this and one of the best at the time at this. Hawks directs slickly and the film is stylishly and atmospherically made.

Script flows very well, makes one think and has tension on the most part. The story gets bogged down a little at times, but it often intrigues, the more menacing moments are suspenseful and it all feels plausible. Nicely scored too.

Not much wrong here actually. Phillips Holmes and Constance Cummings don't fare as well as Huston and Karloff. Cummings does fare better as she is charming and touching, her problem is that she doesn't have a lot to work with. Holmes however struck me as rather bland.

Likewise with the central romance, which is fairly underdeveloped and can tend to slow the film down.

Drawbacks aside, on the whole as said this was to me a good film. 7/10