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. **.

[SEXTON BLAKE AND] THE HOODED TERROR

Greta Gynt and George Curzon

SEXTON BLAKE AND THE HOODED TERROR (aka The Hooded Terror/1938). Director: George King.

"Bombs going off. Men falling dead. What kind of place is this? A gentleman's house or a chamber of horrors?' -- Mrs. Bardell

While almost completely unknown in the United States, private eye Sexton Blake, who began life as a Sherlock Holmes clone (who even had an office on Baker Street and a Mrs. Hudson-type housekeeper) before metamorphosing into different types of action heroes over the decades, was once very big stuff in England. In this film our hero (George Curzon) is up against a secret group known as the Black Quorum, which is led by a man known as the Snake. The members of the Quorum wear masks at their meetings, but take them off to look at closed-circuit television, making one wonder why they bother with the masks in the first place. Greta Gynt plays a special agent named Julie, whom Blake is always condescending to because she's a woman, but who saves his bacon on at least one occasion. (Brave Julie is the most "modern" thing about the movie.) Blake has an assistant named Tinker (Tony Sympson) and a housekeeper named Mrs. Bardell (Marie Wright). Tod Slaughter plays a deceptively jovial figure named Michael Larron. The most interesting scene features a death chamber full of slithering snakes. This isn't terrible, just not very memorable. Curzon, Gynt and the others are fine, with Gynt especially vivacious, adept and notable.

Verdict: Stick with Sherlock Holmes. **.