Illicit is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by Archie Mayo and starring Barbara Stanwyck, James Rennie, Ricardo Cortez, and Natalie Moorhead.

Based on a play by Edith Fitzgerald and Robert Riskin, the film is about a young couple living together out of wedlock because the woman does not believe in marriage.

But when Price Baines comes back into the picture, Dick becomes resentful, and starts to take an interest in Margie True, who tells him that she is still in love with him.

Although superfically this is the case in this narrative, it seems as though the characters might have an excuse for parting forever had they not been bound by marriage ties… (It) opens with Richard Ives and Anne Vincent living together…Apparently nobody suspects that they are exponents of companionate marriage, and not until they put up at hotels together does society begin to observe this breach of social law.

Then comes the conventional excuse..the discovery that he is after all interested in that attractive blonde…Anne has her old flame, who virtually tells her that he hopes her marriage will be a failure when he says that if she ever separates or is divorced from Richard he will be waiting for her.Barbara Stanwyck and James Rennie are thoroughly human in their rôles.

Claude Gillingwater is capital as Richard's father, who is responsible for making Anne consent to marriage.” [2] On August 19, 2008, Dennis Schwartz observed: “This daring risqué melodrama…has aged badly and when viewed today seems arch.

Archie Mayo…does a poor job keeping this morality tale alive, as it’s way too chatty, the characters remain undeveloped clichés and it has no surprises up its sleeve to keep us tuned in….In this trivial and tedious weepie that lacks much punch and action, after both parties in the separation seek solace in others they have a reawakening after much soul searching and reunite for a happy ending.

Thereby they reinforce the traditions of marriage over living a sexually free life and the film takes the sauce out of any arguments it offered to the contrary.