Illicit (Warner Bros.) (1931)

Warner Bros. present “ILLICIT”—A Vitaphone Picture An Important Message To All Toledo About “ILLICIT” The Most Discussed Picture of the Year! interest and pride. tainment. *Thicit.”’ a day to come. See We offer “Illicit”’ with a combination of great The comment which “Illicit”? has aroused forces ‘us to realize it is more than an effort at enter The story, which already has developed into an issue, is of a clean, healthy girl who prefers to live her romance strictly according to her own personal and unusual ideas. We do not say this is true of our modern generation. Never-the-less that’s the story of We ask you—please, try to understand the spirit in which “Illicit” has been produced. Once in a generation comes such a vehicle which surpasses the heights of entertainment to leave with you a startling impression that you will wonder over and discuss for many — lt For Yourself Before Your Friends Tell You About It! BARBARA STANWYCK CHARLES BUTTERWORTH JAMES RENNIE, RICARDO CORTEZ Begins Tomorrow METROPOLITAN 264 Lines New Kind of Role for James Rennie a EES “Tlicit,’” the Warner Bros. production which comes to the A by Soha uaiene ss Theatre next, features Barbara Stanwyck and mes Rennie. Rennie, who has on such favor with the picture public, is cast as a lover who wishes his sweetheart to marry him, while she feels that matrimony is a death-blow to love. Others in the cast are Charles Butterworth, Joan Blondell, Natalie Moorehead, Ricardo Cortez and Claude Gillingwater. Archie Mayo directed. James Rennie is a Canadian. He graduated from the Collegiate Institute in Toronto, majoring in English. Though the school did not offer a course in navigation, this subject occupied the off hours of the screen favorite. Later his mind turned to air navigation and he was a pilot in the British Royal Flying Corps during the World War. Among his outstanding pictures are “Clothes Make _ the Pirate,” “His Children’s Children,” “Girl of the Golden West” and “The Bad Man.” A RISING STAR ‘Tllicit,’ the Warner Bros. production featuring the beautiful Barbara Stanwyck, presents’ pert blonde Joan Blondell in another of the hard-boiled roles which have made her so popular. The oldest daughter of vaudeville’s famous “Katzenjammer Kid” is destined for stardom at no distant date. Others in the fine cast are James Rennie, Charles Butterworth, Natalie Moorehead, Ricardo Cortez and Claude Gillingwater. Archie Mayo directed. Butterworth From Stage Charles Butterworth, whose whimsical fun-making adds_ so much of the story of “Illicit,’’ the Warner Bros. production which comes to the .... . Theatre next, has won for himself a unique place on Broadway where his odd humor is invariably greeted by howls of approval. ‘Tllicit” features beautiful Barbara Stanwyck. Others in the cast are James Rennie, Joan Blondell, Natalie Moorehead, Ricardo Cortez and Claude Gillingwater. Archie Mayo directed. (Feature) “Thlhicit’” Director Stresses Need for Natural Voices The superfluous voice affectation of the stage is finding no room on the talking screen. Such is the opinion of Archie Mayo, who directed “Illicit,” the Warner Bros. and Vitaphone picture which is running at the. Theatre featuring Barbara Stanwyck and James Rennie, “Stage voices as trained in the ‘old school,’ claims Mayo, “are almost taboo in talking pictures today. No longer does the public want to hear the villain hiss his S’s or roll his R’s, nor does the public wish to listen to leading characters who speak with an affected accent or use other unnecessary intonations. This does not apply of course, to players cast in some particular foreign characterization, where it would be natural to speak with an accent. “There is probably no_ better example of natural voice reproduction,” declares Mayo, “than found in ‘Illicit’ A modern American story with modern American characters, this picture brings to the screen a cast of stage and screen artists who speak their lines and react to situations as anyone would normally do in real life. In fact four of the finest speaking voices of the screen greatly enhance the dramatic value of the _ picture. These voices belong to Barbara Stanwyck, James Rennie, Ricardo Cortez and Joan Blondell. “With the exception of Cortez, who is a picture veteran, the rest have been comparatively recently recruited to the screen, but all of them received the proper kind of training on the stage. And it is this stage training that has made them valuable in talking pictures. “TMhicit” Thrills “Micit.” ‘the Warner Bros. pro | duction NOW: Av. NENG e sere ones Theatre, is one of the most human and thrilling expositions of the modern theories of love vs. the tried practice of the ages. Beautiful Barbara Stanwyck plays the lead, with James Rennie, Charles Butterworth, Joan Blondell, Natalie Moorehead and Ricardo Cortez Archie Mayo splendidly directed the unusual picture. ‘Illicit’ has caused much discussion. It is the sort of play that makes people think. She’s-the—-Girl_of—the—Hour! with Charles Butterworth James Rennie d Now at the Ricardo pant oy s ; A Warner Bros. REXY aad Cut No. 4 Cut 40c Mat 10c 134 Lines (Feature) LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF LOVE The relationship of man and woat the... Theatre, with Barbara man in marriage is one of the most Stanwyck and James Rennie in the fruitful sources of drama to be found. It poses many problems leading roles, under the direction right to the hand of the dramatist, |0f Archie Mayo. novelist and scenarist. Is the institution of mayioq |-snomdnzosun doomed? Is marriage sex. sla ; with the wife the prisoner? Is the wedding ceremony the enemy of love? Many novels, plays and pictures have been written around these questions, but there are always new and engrossing angles to the problems the marriage relationship poses. A number of them have been caught by Edith Fitzgerald and Robert Riskin in “Illicit,’ an unproduced play which Warner Bros, have just made into the Vitaphone talking picture under the same title, now showing She took marriage lightly, but paid heavily. Breaking the mar riage laws broke her own heart! Love to her was everything . .. Marriage, the end of everything . . . Because in her set the wedding march usually ended at the divorce courts. James Rennie and Charles Butterworth Cut No. 15 Cut 40c RIALTO Begins Tomorrow All Seats 25e till 1 p.m. (Stolen Sweets Must Be Paid For) with . BARBARA STANWYCK The New Screen Star Mat 10c 154 Lines Miss. Stanwyck whose. bie stage . A Smaee ST ey fesRiIuPAneR a — offers her one of the finest screen roles of the year—a fact of which she has taken the fullest possible advantage, according to reports emanating from the studios and from exhibitors and others who have seen it in the projection room. “Anne Vincent,” says Miss Stanwyck, “is a girl deeply in love. ‘Illicit?’ is the love story of a girl who thought the wedding ring would kill love. She believed in the new declaration of woman’s sex independence—Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Love. She wanted freedom and love, but not a husband because she _ believed marriage killed love and romance. She applied to the sex relationship the pagan philosophy of Omar Khayyam and paraphrased one of his lines to read: ‘Take love and let the husband go.’ She wanted to be a playmate of love and not a prisoner of marriage, a slave to the wedding ring. In that respect she is like many other women of today who believe they give up too much freedom in entering the matrimonial state, sacrifice their own individuality, and run the risk of finding that daily association with a husband quickly lessens the romance, which every woman craves, to the vanishing point. Her drama is that of the ‘advanced or new woman’ whe has made her position in society more secure through the freedom women abrogated to themselves during the war. Many women will not agree with her theories, which she tries to put into practice, but they will find her story all the more absorbing because she does experiment with love, bringing into the open some of the sentiment« that many women have secrets cherished but have lacked the courage or the opportunity openly to avow.”