THE ECHO MURDERS

David Farrar as Sexton Blake

THE ECHO MURDERS (1945). Director: John Harlow.

Stella Duncan (Pamela Stirling) is unaware that her "father," James (Julien Mitchell), actually killed her real father years ago and raised her as his own. His secretary, Rainsford (Dennis Arundell), has discovered the truth and is blackmailing him. Into this unfriendly situation comes the other private eye from Baker Street, Sexton Blake [The Hooded Terror], this time played by David Farrar in a somewhat gruffer, more "American" style. When the expected murders occur, suspects include the geeky Beales (Kynaston Reeves of Fiend without a Face), who lives in a house on a cliff; crook Dacier (Ferdy Mayne); and Dr. Grey (Patric Curwen); among others. There's a mine occupied by plotting Nazis as well. This is modestly entertaining but distinctly minor. Farrar had a supporting role in a previous Sexton Blake film, The Hooded Terror and starred in Meet Sexton Blake just before making Echo Murders.

Verdict: Reasonably fast-moving but never fully engaging. **.

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1958). Director: Arthur Crabtree.

In and around a U.S. Air Force base in Manitoba, mysterious things are happening. Strange sloshing sounds are heard and people are suddenly killed by a weird invisible presence. Corpses are found missing their brains and spinal cords. Major Cummings (Marshall Thompson) investigates and comes across an old professor (Kynaston Reeves), and his pretty secretary Barbara (Kim Parker), the former of whom may know more than he realizes about the deaths. This movie may seem to borrow certain concepts from Forbidden Planet, but it was based on a story that pre-dates that great sci fi film. The stop-motion effects to bring the unusual monsters to life at the climax aren't bad at all, although some of the process work is clumsy; the sound effects are great. Kim Parker, who also appeared in Fire Maidens of Outer Space and a few other films, played another secretary in one more film and then was gone from the screen; she is not bad in Fiend. Crabtree also directed the nifty Horrors of the Black Museum. Thompson was "introduced" in Blonde Fever, although it was not his first movie. He did a number of genre items such as First Man into Space. Fiend without a Face takes its place beside The Brain from Planet Arous as a great brain movie. NOTE: You can read more about this movie and others like it in Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies.

Verdict: You can't beat those brains! ***.