Convict's Code

Robert Kent is Dave Tyler, sent to prison for a bank job he didn't do. Kent played a bunch of B film roles, and died quite young at 46. In the story, Tyler is paroled, and wants to find out who dunnit. He seems to be spending all his time convincing his friends and his employer that he really didn't do it. One of his friends "Gregory" is played by Sydney Blackmer, whose best known role was probably the cult leader in Rosemary's Baby. Tyler gets into a couple of fist fights, but has to be careful not to break parole, or he'll be back in the big house! it's all quite droll. The gang that framed Tyler is following him around town as he tries to track down those who did him dirty. He walks the line of crossing the line of breaking parole, which could land him back in prison. It all moves pretty slowly.... this IS just a short 62 minutes from Monogram Pictures. Showing on Moonlight Movies... one of the free channels on roku. Directed by Lambert Hillyer, who had started directing in the early days of the silent films. In the 1950s, Hillyer moved to television, and directed TV series until 1956. Hillyer had filmed the early serial version of Batman in 1943! He seems to have retired about then, having reached the age of 66. The film is pretty average... it DOES have some OLD scenery of Los Angeles. sadly, no filming locations listed on imdb as of Sept 2018.

Five years ago, Sidney Blackmer framed Robert Kent for a robbery. Now Kent's friends have gotten him out on parole, and he's to work for Blackmer, who wants to keep a watch on him; he figures he can always violate him back to prison. Kent is trying to find the witnesses who falsely identified him, but he and Blackmer's sister, Anne Neagle, have fallen in love.

It's a B movie plot, and John Krafft's script is B movie material, and it's a Monogram picture. The cast is good, though, and the director is Lambert Hillyer, who had been an A director for William S. Hart, and he works the scenes at a crackling pace and his actors make their lines sound convincing, turning the film into a variation of the Good Bad Man movies that Hillyer and Hart had done. It's clear that the production was done on the cheap, and Hillyer would never venture beyond B westerns and the occasional serial again. However this is a nice little movie to cap his non-western career.

Former college football star Dave Tyler (Robert Kent) maintains his innocence even after three years in prison. He gets released on parole and sets about finding the real culprits. His new bosses are actually the criminals who had set him up and he falls for the bosses' sister.

This is a B-movie crime drama. The filmmaking is simple without much style. The acting isn't any better. The writing is the most problematic. One would think that the perpetrators would keep their distance from Tyler especially since he seems clueless to their scheme. It is solidly stuck in B-movie territory and can't rise above it.

(1939) Convict's Code CRIME DRAMA

It centers on a former football player, Dave Tyler (Robert Kent) on his first day out, granted parole after serving three years of his six year sentence with strict conditions. And despite offered a job with Gregory Warren investment company, he still visits old friends such as newspaper man, Jeff (Ben Alexander) we find out it was regarding a bank robbery to which he says he has nothing to do with. Except that during the conversation, there were six witnesses who said they had saw him. As it turned out, Dave's boss Greg Warren and his accomplice, Joe Russell (Norman Willis) were coincidentally the ones who framed him. Complicating matters is the fact that as soon as he begins working for him, he falls in love with his sister, Julie Warren (Anne Nagel) as he is continued to be tailed by his boss right hand man, Pete Jennings (Carleton Young) to continue to inform him what he is up to.

I was involved until it got to the fourth act I thought was dumb and nonsensical to which as soon as Dave's trusted friend, Jeff Palmer (Ben Alexander) who happened to be a journalist got the names of the supposedly six witnesses, why can't he go and investigate them as opposed to the guy, Dave who could not violate his parole. And what would make this make even more sense is why can't Dave's friend Jeff as a journalist/ newspaper man investigate the six witnesses while Dave is serving time in prison. The movie never answers.

I was unfamiliar with Robert Kent and Anne Nagel. After reading their bios on IMDb, I was glad I didn't have a razor blade nearby. And Victor Killian of Mary Hartman fame was murdered, which I didn't know. A very sad group.

Dave Tyler (Kent) is released on parole. He was accused of murder unjustly, with the jurors paid off. He is determined to clear himself. He goes to work for a man (Sidney Blackmer) - who is the one who actually framed him, though he is unaware of this.

As an added problem, he falls for Blackmer's sister (Nagel).

Victor Killian plays Tyler's parole officer, and he's very strict. I don't know if they're that strict today, but Tyler really had to toe the line.

Not terribly interesting - but the biographies of these actors are something else.