THE ECHO MURDERS

GB
1945
1hr 15mins
Dir: John Harlow
Starring: David Farrar and Kynaston Reeves

Sexton Blake solves a number of murders in Cornwall

This crime film involving the fictional detective Sexton Blake was based on the short story The Terror of Tregarwith by John Silvester and has a number of railway scenes. There are two shots of GWR main line expresses; one is a ‘going-away’ shot so the loco cannot be identified but the other is hauled by a ‘King’ Class 4-6-0. Sexton Blake’s journey from Cornwall to London at the very end of the film features a stock shot of an unrebuilt LMS ‘Royal Scot’ Class 6P 4-6-0 in the Lune Gorge (!) There is also a scene earlier in the film with David Farrar hailing a taxi at London Paddington station.

The first GWR express is heading away from the camera.
Filmed in the same location as the above shot, this second stock shot shows a GWR express in the hands of a ‘King’.
David Farrar looks for a cab at Paddington station
This is the anachronistic stock shot that ends the film. It shows an unrebuilt ‘Royal Scot’ in the Lune Gorge which has also featured in A Honeymoon Adventure (1931), No Limit (1935), Quiet Wedding (1941), The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942), Next of Kin (1942), and The Hangman Waits (1947).