Fresh from his Oscar in 'All the King's Men' Broderick Crawford stepped into Walter Huston's role in version Number Three of 'The Criminal Code', photographed by Burnett Guffey (who had worked with Crawford on 'All the King's Men' and later collected the second of two Oscars for his work on 'Bonnie and Clyde'). In places it recalls 'Each Dawn I Die' and the prison scenes in 'White Heat'; and even includes a scene as in the latter where the hero loses it upon receiving bad news in the slammer.
As usual for the period it's enlivened by it's supporting cast, this time including Millard Mitchell in the role played twenty years earlier by Boris Karloff, a relatively young Ed Begley, Will Geer (the latter soon blacklisted) and Whit Bissell, who since 'Brute Force' had moved to the other side of the prison bars and would do so again along with squealer Frank Faylen in 'Riot in Cell Block 11'.
The presence of a brunette Dorothy Malone as Crawford's demure young daughter makes you realise just how long ago this all was...
As usual for the period it's enlivened by it's supporting cast, this time including Millard Mitchell in the role played twenty years earlier by Boris Karloff, a relatively young Ed Begley, Will Geer (the latter soon blacklisted) and Whit Bissell, who since 'Brute Force' had moved to the other side of the prison bars and would do so again along with squealer Frank Faylen in 'Riot in Cell Block 11'.
The presence of a brunette Dorothy Malone as Crawford's demure young daughter makes you realise just how long ago this all was...