The Criminal Code

Criminal Code, The (1929), a melodrama by Martin Flavin. [National Theatre, 174 perf.] Robert Graham (Russell Hardie), an amiable brokerage clerk, is sent to prison by the state's attorney, Martin Brady (Arthur Byron), for a murder that Graham insists was self‐defense. “‘An eye for an eye,’ That's the basis and foundation of our criminal code,” Brady tells the young man, although the attorney is not without sympathy for the man's plight. Six years later, Graham has remained a model prisoner, although his spirit is broken. Brady's daughter, Mary (Anita Kerry), works at the prison and has taken a liking to Graham and prevailed on her father to seek his parole. But when another prisoner is killed, Graham, accepting the fact that there is a code among criminals, refuses to testify. Mary, her father, and the prison officials beg and cajole, but Graham will not budge. Moved, they proceed with the parole, which is granted. But one cruel prison officer, Gleason (Leo Curley), beats Graham, who kills him in reprisal. There is nothing now that anyone can do for Graham. “It's just the way things break sometimes,” a stunned Brady tells his daughter. Quite possibly the best of all American prison dramas, William Harris Jr.'s production was hailed by Burns Mantle as “a thoughtful study, not only of our methods of prison conduct and corrective punishments, but also of the normal reactions, of both prisoners and keepers, to the law, to the system, and to their respective codes.” Martin [Archer] FLAVIN (1883–1967) was born in San Francisco, raised in Chicago where he attended the University of Chicago, and spent several years as a businessman before seriously turning his hand to playwriting. Two of his one‐act dramas were produced on Broadway in 1921 and his first full‐length play to reach New York was Children of the Moon (1923). During the 1929–30 season, three of Flavin's plays reached New York and all three won substantial critical endorsement: The Criminal Code, Broken Dishes, and Cross Roads. Few of his later works were popular, so Flavin turned to writing novels and was successful.

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