Outside the Law was a sound remake of a 1920 silent film (see entry) that producer-director Tod Browning made for Universal Pictures, starring Lon Chaney. Chaney, who had recently remade another of his silent films, The Unholy Three (1925, see entry), was too ill from throat cancer to reprise his role in Outside the Law, and died 26 Aug 1930.
       All character names from the 1920 version were changed. For example, “Cobra” was originally “’Black Mike’ Sylva,” and “Connie” was “Molly Madden.” Also, Chaney’s Black Mike had a Chinese alter ego named “Ah Wing,” and part of the story took place in San Francisco, CA’s Chinatown district; the Chinese subplot was dropped completely from the remake.
       Items in the 26 Apr 1930 and 7 Jun 1930 issues of Hollywood Filmograph reported that Wells Root wrote the adaptation for the new Outside the Law, but he is not listed in credits.
       Filming began 21 May 1930, according to a production directory in the 26 Jul 1930 Exhibitors Herald-World. The 7 Jun 1930 Motion Picture News noted that Arthur Byron, an actor in his late fifties, was signed to play opposite Mary Nolan, but Byron is not listed in final credits.
       Most trade magazines referred to Outside the Law as a “crook film,” “crook play,” or “crook melodrama.”
       In a 26 Jul 1930 Exhibitors Herald-World article in which Universal Pictures’ general manager, Carl Laemmle, Jr., complained that too many new films in the sound medium abused the use of “chattering dialog,” he stated that Outside the Law contained “less dialog than in any talking picture we have made to date.” Laemmle noted the filmmakers captured the drama “in pantomime,” bolstered by spoken words. “The result is startling,” he said.
       The 3 Sep 1930 Var deemed Outside the Law “one of the worst examples of claptrap since sound came in.” The 23 Aug 1930 Motion Picture News called it “sluggish.”