The Criminal Code (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.

• 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