Convict's Code

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.

(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.

B-movies in the 1930s and 40s were inexpensively made and relatively short films that were shown as part of a double-feature. Many were made by "poverty row" studios--tiny independent companies that often rented space on the major studio lots at night. For the most part, Bs are entertaining enough, but also tend to have lesser actors, writers and directors--sort of like the minor leagues for movie people. Because of this, most B-films are not the quality or entertainment level of an A-picture--though there are many, many exceptions. As For me, I often prefer the Bs--they can be fun, entertaining and usually very fast-moving--as a typical B is about 60 minutes (more or less).

The film starts with a relatively dumb ex-college football star getting out of prison after serving three years for a robbery. Dave continues to deny that he did anything wrong and vows to look up all the witnesses who testified against him and make them tell the truth. However, he needs to be careful, as he is on parole--one slip and he's back in the can. Interestingly, all but one of the witnesses against him are either dead, have moved or are killed as the ex-con talks with him. And, most importantly, they all were known criminal-types. You'd think if the guy could show that all six turned out to have such questionable backgrounds that there'd be reason for the police to re-open the case, but he tells no one--remember, he IS kind of dumb. What else is dumb is that later he does a lot of things that would violate his parole in order to try to prove his innocence. Having a gun, involvement in a NEW robbery, not returning home at night, etc. all further prove the guy is a moron. Then, when he DOES learn who the guy behind the frame-up is, he doesn't go to the police--as he's fallen in love with that man's sister. Just how stupid can a guy be?!

"Convict's Code" is a pretty good B and might have earned a 4 despite its no-name cast--mostly because the story is pretty interesting-even if Dave is a certifiable idiot. However, the ending of the film is sort of like a "scene missing here" film--one where important action takes place off camera and it seems like this is dealt with in a slap-dash manner. It's a shame, but the ending is clearly an example of scene missing here film making--as the guy who REALLY committed the crime admits it but apparently says all this off camera!! Cheesy, clearly at the end and probably not a film to watch unless you are a B-movie fan, too.

By the way, the best thing about the film is a bit role played by Maude Eburne. She plays the most amazingly ambivalent landlady I've ever seen and she is pretty funny. Eburne played in a lot of films over the years and was always fun--including her stint as Dr. Christian's housekeeper in the RKO series.

A former football star named Dave "Whizz" Tyler (Robert Kent) is released from prison on parole and gets a good job, partly due to the head of the sports department at the newspaper having written that Tyler will need a job on release. Tyler swears he was framed and spends his time trying to find out who sent him up the river, even risking parole violations to do it. Along the way, he falls for the sister of his new employer, and that's its own trouble on multiple fronts.

This was a fairly standard story, but enjoyable, with an interesting ending involving Tyler's boss. Kent was likeable and played it cool, never going over the top, where others might have. I liked how the sports writer, played by Ben Alexander, played into things. Victor Kilian as the parole officer and Maude Eburne as the whiny landlady were good too.

I wouldn't say rush out and see this one, but it is a decent way to spend an hour.

P.S. The poster here is for the wrong movie. Perhaps for the 1930 movie of the same name? No idea who that kid is.

Convict's Code is a surprisingly engaging little film noir about Dave Tyler, a man on parole who tries to clear his name while trying not to get thrown back in the slammer. While the reasoning why Dave is hired by a man who wants him thrown back into prison is highly ridiculous, as is the totally melodramatic conclusion, the in-betweens are great, with Robert Kent doing a fine job as the tormented parolee, and Anne Nagel equally fine as his (of course!) blonde haired girlfriend, who mustn't know that he's a parolee, because of course, they have to get permission from his parole officer! (Oh, and she's also the heavy's sister). Actually, this film carefully describes parole life back in 1939, and seems to be more of a burden on a person then it is now. Quite interesting and entertaining!