Product Details

• Actors: Barbara Stanwyck, James Rennie, Ricardo Cortez, Natalie Moorhead, Charles Butterworth
• Directors: Archie Mayo
• Writers: Edith Fitzgerald, Harvey F. Thew, Robert Riskin
• Producers: Darryl F. Zanuck
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Warner)
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Run Time: 79 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303050166
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #310,941 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

llicit, in 1931, gave Barbara Stanwyck her first starring role. She plays a young woman, Anne Vincent, who doesn't want to marry her boyfriend. She wants to keep living in sin, because that's what they've been doing and she's been thoroughly enjoying it, and because she believes marriage kills romance, and also because she doesn't want to become a man's property. As events unfold, and she finds herself pressured into marriage, it becomes obvious that most of her fears were justified. This is very much the kind of movie that the tightening up of the Hollywood Production Code in 1934 was intended to stop, with its guilt-free attitude towards sex and its very independent heroine. Stanwyck is delightful - funny and feisty and sweet and likeable at the same time. James Rennie is OK as her boyfriend, who turns out to be rather conventional. Ricardo Cortez is suave and slightly sinister as one of Anne's ex-boyfriends who is still intermittently pursuing her. Joan Blondell, as so often, plays the heroine's best friends and, as always, she lights the screen. Charles Butterworth plays an amusing perpetually drunken friend, the kind of role that is often annoying in these early sound pictures but Butterworth is quite wonderful, with a superb very dry wit and an air of dazed benevolence. Illicit is always entertaining and provides a nice mix of humour and romance. It's also nice to see a movie which doesn't make judgments on any of its characters. Even the "other woman" isn't demonised.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars STANWYCK IS EXCELLENT, November 2, 2001

By 

"scotsladdie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Illicit [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Barbara Stanwyck wowed the critics in 1931 with this performance. She plays Anne, a free-spirited gal who believes that marriage kills love. Here, Stanwyck heightened the fine impression she made in LADIES OF LEISURE (1930). In ILLICIT, she has several splendid oppurtunities to prove her worth as a dramatic actress; particularly good is her emotional scene at the telephone. ILLICIT is amazing in that its unconventional treatment holds up even today; its even more meaningful when you consider the sexual revolution of the 1960's. For 1931, it was daring indeed. The naturalness of the dialogue and the restrained direction of Archie Mayo provided Stanwyck with the material to create a near-perfect performance and was paid 35,000 for this role! Lew Cody was originally to play the part of Price Baines but it was inherited by Ricardo Cortez. ILLICIT caused quite a storm in its day - it was actually re-made just two years later as a starring vehicle for a rising new Warner Bros. starlet named Bette Davis. It was a trashy little epic entitled EX-LADY.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful Pre Production Code Treasure, August 6, 2005

By 

Pintorini (Saint Louis, Missouri United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Illicit [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This hard-to-find little treat is a must see for Barbara Stanwyck fans, one of her first serious film vehicles. Stanwyck plays Anne Vincent, a thoroughly modern Millie who, despite her love for Dick (James Rennie) disbelieves in the strictures of marriage. So, notwithstanding Dick's persistent proposals, the most she'll give him is the occasional fornicatory weekend in the country. Only after the local society gossips start buzzing does Anne finally agree, under protest, to marry Dick. Predictably, things begin going sour almost immediately after the honeymoon as boredom sets in and petty jealousies flare.

Maybe it's just her acting skill, but its easy to get the impression that Stanwyck was a complicated and interesting person--both a product of her time and way ahead of it, like Anne. What makes this film complicated and interesting, even by the standards of pre-code Hollywood, is that Anne isn't tawdry, isn't disloyal, isn't a vulturous man-eater like the character Stanwyck played in *Baby Face* (1933). She's just a forceful personality who doesn't want to go along with the crowd simply to go along--especially not if it means getting tired of ... uh, Dick.

Copies of this rare VHS go for positively spectacular prices on internet auctions, leading me to believe that the time may be ripe for a DVD release.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Marriage changes everything , 1931 or 2007., March 7, 2007

By 

JOHN GODFREY (Milwaukee ,WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Illicit [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Mores & styles change & the term "living in sin" is pretty laughable today. But it does not follow that a great boyfriend will make a good husband. Maybe. But the opposite is probably more likely. A perceptive, smart woman can see that a less than great boyfriend may make good husband. That is, assuming of course, that he truly loves her & she loves him. Barbara Stanwyck is Ann. She is way ahead of the curve. She is passionately in love with Richard. He is as much in love with her. She prefers he stay overnight as much as possible. He worries about appearances. She does not & in fact does not want to get married, period, end of discussion. They get pressure from their wealthy friends & his family who also worry about their reputations. Finally, against her better judgement & the possibility of losing Richard, she relents. All her worst fears are realized. He starts working late, neglects her, lies & starts up again with an old girlfriend. She is bored & frustrated, starved for love which apparently she needs a lot of. They try to separate for a while. Her old boy friend, Price, starts sniffing around like a dog in heat. At first she tries to discourage him, but it's hard knowing Richard is stepping out on her. The movie is daring for it's time. Guess what? In the pre-code movies women enjoyed sex. It all works itself out in a way, the only way that it could given the times. Babara Stanwyck is beautiful & already an excellent actress in this early role.