After reading Marek Kohn's "Dope Girls" it is obvious that this film was based on the life of Kate Meyrick who became a night club entrepreneur after her husband left her with two sons at Harrow and four daughters to support. She answered an advertisement for someone to help give "tea dances" and with the club attracting both villains and the cream of society she was soon a notorious celebrity. Often hauled into court on corruption and morals charges, her fines were low (20 pounds) probably because she was having an affair with a Vice Squad officer who was later jailed on corruption charges. It didn't stop them from raking in 1,000's of pounds though!! This film may have been inspired by her 1932 autobiography.Life is hard for Evelyn Dean (Isobel Elsom) - her husband is a compulsive gambler who (surprise, surprise) always loses and when he is home he knocks her about before taking her money. She does manage to save enough though, to buy him a one way ticket to Cape Town and with him gone good luck rolls her way. Her good friend Albert tells her of a dream he has to open a gambling club - the one he worked at has just closed and he knows exactly what they did wrong. Just as he has almost won her over the local bookie comes calling. True to his word he has put a bet on for her (in appreciation as she has paid her husband's gambling debts) and it comes through to the tune of 180 pounds!!!As gambling and drink have taken from her, so she decides to take from them and with Albert as her adviser opens "The Scarecrow" which proves the means of giving her two daughters the best education possible. I agree Margot Grahame was a knockout as rebellious daughter Dorothy. She exuded sex appeal at a time when British actresses were not noted for it. She and her sister Ann (Moira Lynd) are forced to leave school when the notoriety of a reported prison sentence catches up with their mother. Dorothy, while still at school, proves she could find a job anywhere as a singer with a soulful rendition of "Can't We Talk It Over". Her steadier sister decides to re-open "The Scarecrow" with Albert's help and on legitimate lines with Dorothy as resident singer ("Too Late" and "Was That the Human Thing to Do"): it is a huge success - then her stepfather reappears.......When Margot Grahame left for Hollywood in the mid 1930s she was Britain's highest paid actress and compared to Moira Lynd who plays conventional, insipid Ann, it is not hard to see why she was easily noticed.

Oddly, Denis Gifford doesn't include this one is his splendid "British Film Catalogue", despite the fact that it was made at Teddington and the only non-Britishers in its entire cast and crew were photographer Willard Van Enger (his final film before turning his attention exclusively to special photographic effects), producer Irving Asher and director Bill McGann. The best thing about the movie is Margot Grahame, who has three songs – "Can't We Talk It Over?", "A Million Tomorrows" and "Was That the Human Thing To Do?" – which she puts across in fine style. At first, the script tries to play the illegal gambling issue from a refreshingly why-such-a-stupid-law point of view, but around the halfway point switches sides and comes down heavily on the always trust the conservatives if you want to stay safe, poor and helpless. Given the disjointed script, it's a wonder the players can give any sort of performance at all, but led by Isobel Elsom and Ivor Barnard, all succeed in bringing a bit of life to their inconsistent if pasteboard characters. The movie is available on an excellent Roan DVD.

Much like "Striptease" (Demi Moore's film about a pole artist who must hide her true occupation to retain custody after a messy divorce), "Illegal" is about a mother who turns to running a gambling house in order to be able to afford to raise her children properly from a distance. But there are no clear signals from writers or director as to whether this was an ultimately wise choice, and so the moral message -- let alone the underlying sense of the plot -- remains largely ambiguous on the screen. The main character has a heart of gold, so why must she suffer her partial tragedy?There is also a rather flawed construction in the execution of the film: The last three or four scenes are perfunctory to the point of denying a proper catharsis with the characters, for whom you wouldn't mind rooting a bit more. One is left with the impression, for instance, that the younger daughter's relationship with the gentleman is nothing more than a piece of good luck. The concluding scene, while perfectly satisfactory in its own way, could have been enhanced with more searching, meaning-of-life-type dialog.In sum, a promising story, but too summarily dispatched.

It could mop the floor with most other films in this genre during the thirties. It's very much like an early version of "Mildred Pierce." Isabel Elsom is its Mildred: Life has dealt her a shoddy hand. So with the encouragement of a man who is her friend but not more she opens a club.She wants only the best for her two daughters, though. And one of them is played by Margot Graham. And that daughter is the equivalent of Veda! She is trouble with a capital "T." Then there is Elsom's second husband, the girls' stepfather ...! Let's not even get into that. We don't want to give anything away.It's an antique but it still packs a wallop. The acting is generally good to excellent (Graham and Elsom.) I think the original "Scarface," which came out around this same time, remains one of the most shocking movies every made. And this one, its own way -- and on its own terms -- is shocking too.