Peter Hannen has invented a groundbreaking whatsit. He takes the plans he is working on with him on his honeymoon with Benita Hume at her castle in Scotland. But bad guys in the person of Harold Huth and Robert English have gotten wind of it and want it. They lure Hannen away, make him a prisoner, and then Huth goes up to Scotland, pretending to be an old friend of Hannen's, and means to search the place for the plans. Will Miss Hume outwit him?
There is a bit of weakness in the plotting here: why not tell her "We have your husband! The plans or his life!" But there is an old family retainer and a piper on the premises, so I guess that's enough. Director Maurice Elvey spends most of the time showing us one of his favored actresses of the period, and that's pleasant enough, as she twists and turns and runs, only to find the annoying Huth right on her trail.
It was a very good print, which allowed me to appreciate the sharp, confident sound design. Scenes that are set outdoors or in crowded locations have a loud ambient background noise that begins on the cut. This lets the audience know they are in the world, and in the real world at that, as church bells, street traffic, and train engines present themselves to the ear as well as the eye; Huth and Miss Hume skulk silently throughout the night in the castle. Marcus Cooper is credited, and the IMDb credits him with being the director of one short subject and the sound recordist on five features for Basil Dean's ARP in the early 1930s. He then disappears until a final credit in 1961. Assuming it's the same Marcus Cooper, I suspect he disappeared into a supervisory position in between.
