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Vernon Wolfe (Jameson Thomas) is a businessman as ruthless as they come
- so he doesn't shy away from killing a business partner and nobleman from
Russia for his own financial gain, then he buys the very yacht he
committed the crime on, and he even invites Boris Ivanoff (Henry Victor)
for a cruise. He invites Wardell (Carl Harbord) for that same cruise to
cheat him out of a lump of money, but Wardell has long grown suspicious of
Wolfe, so he brings along his best friend Roger (Jack Raine) as his sort
of bodyguard - but to everyone else, Roger pretends to be his valet. Then
Wardell is shot though (he survives), and the first one whom Roger
suspects is Wolfe - but Wolfe has an airtight alibi, he was up on the
bridge with the captain (Randle Ayrton) when the shot was fired, and the
captain is the only one Roger trusts implicitly because they served
together in the army and besides Wardell of course and Roger's love
interest Sylvia (Jean Colin) he's the only one who knows who Roger really
is. Eventually, Roger and the captain find out that Wardell was shot
dead by a gun hidden behind one of the tiles and connected to the ship't
piano so it goes off once a certain accord is struck on the piano. So the
three of them make up a scheme to unmask the murderer, they have Sylvia
play the same song she played when Wardell was shot at while Wolfe sits in
the room the crime has happened in playing cards with a few others. When
Sylvia comes close to hitting the accord in question though, it's Ivanoff
who loses his cool - turns out it was him who placed the gun, and he
actually wanted to kill Wolfe for the murder of his father. In the
struggle that ensues, he actually kills Wolfe, too, then willingly gives
himself up. And Roger gets the girl ... Not really one of the
better murder mystery, this one suffers from all the shortcomings of very
early talking cinema, like very static cameraword (to not drown the
dialogue in the noises of camera moviement), static acting (to not move
away from the microphones too far) and wooden dialogue delivery (to bring
everything across as clearly as possible) - but quite frankly, none of
this is the biggest problem of this film, nor is the highly clichéed plot
and lack of any real tension or suspense ... no, it's the horribly written
dialogue that the actors have to deliver that almost derives them of the
first opportunity to bring their characters to life.I wouldn't exactly say
that's a pity because the film doesn't have too much going for it beyond
that, but it certainly does not help things along, either.
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