Summary
A gilded engagement—two heirs to a shipping empire, Gregory Thorne and Marta Milbanke—drifts in velvet ennui until an unsigned epistle, inked in menace, vows to sink both Milbanke’s manor and his wartime freighter should it sail for the Allied front. Gregory, craving turbulence, claims clairvoyant knowledge of the author yet withholds the name, bartering secrecy for the severance of his own betrothal. The quid pro quo: he must vanish from Marta’s life. Instead he orchestrates a moonlit abduction, only to collide with Count Hilgar Eckstrom’s parallel scheme; amid the brawl Marta is swept into the wrong sedan, shackled in Eckstrom’s cliff-top aerie while Gregory, in pursuit, is clapped in irons beside her. From torch-lit dungeons to fog-choked wharves the film pirouettes through double-crosses, coded wireless cables, and a final dockside shoot-out where Gregory turns the Count’s own torpedo timer against him, delivering the saboteurs to federal cuffs and reclaiming both Marta and a love now tempered by gun-smoke.
Synopsis
Gregory Thorne and Marta Milbanke are engaged. Their fathers are millionaire ship owners. Gregory's efforts to inject a little excitement into their engagement life are fruitless, but when Mr. Milbanke receives an anonymous letter which threatens disaster to his home and fortune if he permits a shipload of supplies for the Allies to leave the docks the young man sees an opportunity for creating what he longs for and tells Mr. Milbanke that he knows who has written the letter but that he will not divulge the man's identity. Gregory, who suspects Count Hilgar Eckstrom, is told that he must terminate his engagement with Marta. But this is what Gregory wants, so he plans to abduct his sweetheart. Gregory's men clash with Eckstrom's gang, who has also come to kidnap Marta, and the disturbance results in the arrival of the police. Marta by mistake, allows herself to be carried off by Eckstrom's men and is taken a prisoner. Gregory, following, is also made a captive, and the young people are held as hostages. How Gregory outwits Eckstrom and places him and his gang in the hands of the law brings about a startling climax.
Review Excerpt
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The first thing that strikes you about Up Romance Road is how brazenly it weaponizes affluence: chandeliers become interrogation lamps, ballrooms double as bargaining tables, and a single sheet of cream stationery nearly scuttles an armada. Jules Furthman’s screenplay—written two years before he penned My Partner’s hard-boiled repartee—already exhibits his lifelong obsession with moral negotiation zones. Here negotiation is courtship, courtship is ext..."
