The Echo Murders

UK 1945
produced by
Louis H. Jackson for Strand Film Company
directed by John Harlow
starring David Farrar, Dennis Price, Cyril Smith, Dennis Arundell, Kynaston Reeves, Pamela Stirling, Julian Mitchell, Ferdy Mayne, Johnnie Schofield, Paul Croft, Desmond Roberts, Danny Green, Patric Curwen, Vincent Holman, Howard Douglas, Billy howard, Anders Timberg, H Victor Weske, Gerald Pring, Noel Dainton, Charles Hersee, Olive Walter
screenplay by John Harlow, based on characters created by Hal Meredeth (= Harry Blyth), music by Percival Mackey

Sexton Blake, Sexton Blake (David Farrar)

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Shady businessman Duncan (Julien Mitchell) owns a dried-out tin mine everybody seems to want to get his hands on nevertheless, but for whatever reason, Duncan is not selling, even when his secretary Rainsford (Dennis Arundell) tries to blackmail him. Then Duncan turns up dead, and Warren (Dennis Price), the fiancé of his daughter Stella (Pamela Stirling) and foreman of the mine, is arrested for it. Of course, Stella thinks Warren's innocent, so she calls famous detective Sexton Blake (David Farrar) onto the scene to investigate.

Blake soon finds evidence leading to everywhere, but no smoking gun - and then Rainsford is found dead, an apparent suicide, and in his farewell letter he confesses to the murder of Duncan. Everybody is satisfied with this - everybody but Blake, who digs up more and more dirt and finally finds out that Beales (Kynaston Reeves), a seemingly harmless local running a fitness club, is actually a Nazi agent preparing the invasion of Great Britain - to which end he needs the mine as a Nazi hideout. However, Beales and his henchmen soon get a hold of Blake, torture him and eventually kill him.

The home office has gotten wind of the supposed Nazi invasion, so they send one of their top men to investigate, an old and frail man who eventually turns out to be Blake, who has faked his own death, in disguise. Eventually, Blake leads a gang of local patriots against the Nazi stronghold, and all of them are captured or killed, and only now their actual leader is unmasked - the benign local doctor (Patric Curwen).

Murder mystery with shades of World War II-propaganda that's entertaining thanks to a pretty good ensemble cast and a decent (if not exactly original and a bit overcrowded) script. That said though, the film is not exactly something special, it's full of clichés and its direction tends to be a bit on the stagey side, but if you're ok with that, you'll probably find yourself enjoying this film.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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