Love Bound

The movie has its creaking moments, as all murder mysteries from the early thirties do, but it's well shot and beautifully composed. Verna/Vera is a wonderful villainess, and I have at times during the film been transfixed by her ghostly and ghastly whiteness against the black backgrounds as she postures and poses, prances and plots.

The surrounding cast, especially the good son who must fight against her slander of the "family honour," do well also. There is an eccentric old lord who "wheezes," for instance, with great hilarity, as he is followed about by his valet.

Murder mysteries, if they are your genre, have three distinct phases. There is the set-up, which in this film is quite long and complicated. This film makes you think about the back story on your own, before throwing the film onto a ship where the murder occurs. The second phase transpires as the murder is about to take place and as it takes place, and then the final third details the solving of the murder.

I recommend this old film.

An interesting film because of the multiple twists and turns. Verna Wilson is a blond seductress who preys on the rich by manipulating them into what seems to be "compromising situations," then takes them to court for settlement. But Vera is really a cat's paw for her lawyers who actually take 90% of the money.

Richard "Dick" Randolph is determined to expose her after she "takes" his father John Randolph for $120,000 in court (about $2,500,000 today 2023).

When Dick learns Verna is about to go on a cruise, he comes up with a plan to expose Verna. But the best laid plans of men go astray, and this is not the case that proves the rule wrong. Actually, after the film ends the viewer has questions left unanswered. This film is more of a Bret Harte trope than murder mystery, but it is worth watching.

Tom Ricketts, the Baron, provides some comedic moments to lighten the mood.

Because "Love Bound" is a murder mystery, you realize very, very early into the movie who the victim will be. A much-hated woman who makes a fortune blackmailing innocent men in court is about to go on a cruise...and she receives a note threatening her life. Additionally, Dick, the son of the recently ruined man who was sued by her is also on the boat....and he's determined to get justice. Surprisingly, however, despite all the cliches and usual formula, she does NOT get killed. So what gives? Who's gonna die in this one?

This is a good movie because it avoided predictability and cliches. But it also does something that you'll either love or hate...the film gets you to believe that a professional blackmailer actually CAN do the right thing and she actually falls in love with her pursuer, Dick! Hard to believe she could fall for Dick, but also it opens up some interesting possibilities and twists. Well worth seeing.

A man takes a European cruise in order to keep tabs on a woman who blackmailed his father. He tries to trick her into blackmailing someone posing as a Texas oil millionaire.

If you watch this under the title MURDER ON THE HIGH SEAS, you might get a bit frustrated around the halfway mark, when it seems to be more of a watery romance. Alas, this movie is also called LOVE BOUND. So, murder mystery fans could be disappointed. Not that it's bad, it's just not all that exciting.

Is there any murder involved? Well, yes, but it's sort of too little too late...

Story is pretty dated now. In IMDB it's love bound, but on tubi it's murder on the high seas. Picture quality is pretty rough, and much of it is washed out white. It's a sixty minute shortie from peerless pictures. When a man-chasing woman wins a case against a rich, married man, the married man's family decides to do something about it. When the blackmailer goes on an ocean voyage, the family man's son follows her, and tries to catch her at it again, and expose the truth. But plans never seem to turn out as we expected. We can tell talkies had just recently started, with the heavy eye makeup, the over acting in places, and the steady snap, crackle, pop of the soundtrack. Lots of grainy, stock footage of some generic ocean liner. Who will win in the game of love? Directed by robert hill. Story by jim gilbert. Hill and mulhall had started early in the silents, back before dirt was invented. The version showing on tubi has a copyright renewal date of 1949! Peerless was started in 1914, but filed bankruptcy in the early 1930s, and was merged into world picturess.