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(Howard Hawks, 1930, 97 mins) Release date: 26 June 2023 Standard Edition Blu-ray Howard Hawks (Twentieth Century) made his first film for Columbia Pictures with this pre-Code prison movie. The great Walter Huston (Dragonwyck) stars as a district attorney-turned-prison warden who gets to witness first-hand the effects of his convictions, especially Phillips Holmes (An American Tragedy), imprisoned after killing a man in a drunken brawl. Co-starring Boris Karloff (Frankenstein), The Criminal Code is tough, no-nonsense, quintessential Hawks. INDICATOR STANDARD EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES High Definition remaster Original mono audio Audio commentary with film historian Nora Fiore (2021) Behind the Mask (2021, 26 mins): author and critic Kim Newman discusses the non-horror career of actor Boris Karloff Codes and Convictions (2021, 30 mins): video essay by Jonathan Bygraves on the many adaptations of Marvin Flavin’s The Criminal Code The Howard Hawks Masterclass with John Carpenter (1997, 36 mins): archival audio recording of a presentation by the cult filmmaker from the British Film Institute’s 1997 Howard Hawks retrospective at the National Film Theatre, London Lux Radio Theatre: ‘The Criminal Code’ (1939, 59 mins): radio adaptation starring Edward G Robinson, Beverly Roberts and Paul Guilfoyle Image galleries: on-set and promotional photography from The Criminal Code and its lost Spanish-language version, El código penal New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing #PHISE207B BBFC cert: PG REGION B EAN: 5060697923445
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The Criminal Code (1931)
97 min
After young Robert Graham commits a murder while drunk and defending his girlfriend, he is prosecuted by ambitious Mark Brady and sentenced to 10 years. Six years later, Brady becomes the prison warden and offers the beleaguered Robert a job as his chauffeur. Robert cleans up his act, but, on the eve of his pardon, his cellmate drags him back into the world of violence, and he faces a difficult choice that could return him to prison.