This forthcoming Vitagraph film is somewhat new. A Kentucky mountain story, "The Code of the Hills" is a reversal of the "unwritten law." In the "unwritten law" a woman's honor is defended, any abuse thereof means death. In the "Code of the Hills" a woman avenges the murder of her husband by a former rival for her affections. The story as told being an old love feud, in which the rejected lover takes the life of his successful rival, who is able to write the name of his slayer on a piece of maple bark before he expires. The young widow treasures this maple bark note as evidence of the guilt of her former admirer, awaiting occasion to avenge her husband, which she is successful in accomplishing after two years. She has no sooner fired the fatal shot than the sheriff, having heard the report, intercepts her. With defiance she produces the maple bark note and convinces the sheriff of the justice of her act according to the "Code of the Hills." The sheriff yields to the exigencies of the occasion and takes the dead man's revolver from his belt, fires one shot from it, and then places it in the hand of the dead man as if to indicate that he had himself fired the fatal shot, either in suicide or in an attack of which he became the victim. This strangely chivalrous act of the sheriff is new; he endorses the act of the woman, as, according to the "code" side of the "unwritten law," it is not legal, but human from the viewpoint of the people of the "Hills." While this is a double tragedy, it is so presented that there are no gruesome features; it is presented with the Vitagraph care for a clean picture, and as tragedies form a necessary part of life portrayals, when presented in this manner they are free from criticism and censure. The value of the picture is enhanced by the scenery, which is typical of the title of the play and naturally very picturesque. - The Moving Picture World, September 2, 1911
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