Echo of Diana (1963) User Reviews

Who Is Diana?

[boblipton · 6/10 · 23 June 2020]

Dermott Walsh has disappeared. His wife, Betty McDowall, believes his private plane has gone down, and him with it. Then the radio announces that authorities believe they have found the crashed plane near the Turkish border, and her friend, Clare Owen, points out a notice in the personal ads of a paper: "In Memoriam, Philip Scott (Walsh), killed in an air crash June 4; Fondest love. No regrets. Diana."

Miss McDowall is called into Scotland Yard, where Geoffrey Toone tells her there are spy matters going on. At that point, things become confused.

It's a nice little mystery wrapped in a spy thriller, with mysterious spy rings and no one to trust. It's a cheap little thriller, but the actors speak their lines as if they mean them and there's no clear answer to whodunnit until the big reveal at the end. Not bad at all.

Above average British B-movie

[ffranc · 7/10 · 24 June 2000]

In the days of the cold war, many films and TV series were based on the themes of espionage and mysterious disappearances. It was unsurprising that second-feature specialists Butcher's would produce one in this genre.

However, this is well-plotted and genuinely suspenseful in parts, with a good twist in the tail. If the low budget is obvious in the production values, the acting is solid, especially Vincent Ball as the journalist who is more than he appears and Betty MacDowall in her specialist rôle as the grieving widow.

Intriguing Butcher's effort

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 9 September 2016]

A cheap British spy effort from those hard-working fellows at Butcher's Film Service, ECHO OF DIANA offers something a little different for fans of the genre. For a start, it's not a film with a clear-cut plot; most of this one takes the form of a mystery that slowly unravels over the hour-long running time. It's an intriguing little thing in places, following a wife's determination to solve the mysteries surrounding her husband's death in a plane crash in Turkey.

A friend and reporter help her to uncover the truth about what happened, and the authorities also take a keen interest. However, there's also a murderous kidnap gang at work, and each of these factions works against the other as the running time unfolds. Part detection, part kidnap thriller, part hostage drama; ECHO OF DIANA is always sedate and a little genteel, but it kept me watching from beginning to end, which is more than can be said for some.

Australian actress Betty McDowall is the erstwhile lead and pretty good with it too; her character grows on you and she evokes sympathy as the storyline progresses. The casting director had an eye for talent with lots of good little roles for the likes of Geoffrey Toone, a funny Michael Balfour, a quirky Marianne Stone, and even a pivotal cameo from Dermot Walsh. Director Ernest Morris made this back-to-back with SHADOW OF FEAR and it's by far the superior of the two films.

Modest but better than you would expect spy drama from b-pic specialists Butcher's.

[jamesraeburn2003 · 25 February 2011]

A British agent called Philip Scott is killed in a plane crash near the Turkish border. His wife Joan (Betty McDowall) is concerned by a memoriam in the newspaper signed by a mysterious woman known simply as Diana but no trace can be found of her. She is helped by journalists Pamela Jennings (Clare Owen) and Bill Vernon (Vincent Ball) who is keen to do a series of articles on Scott claiming that he knew him during the war. The pair have both had their flats ransacked and are summoned by security chief Colonel Justin (Geoffrey Toone) who believes that both jobs were perpetrated by a double agent called Harris who is some how connected in the Philip Scott case. Later Joan is approached by the head of an Eastern embassy, Kavali (Peter Illing), who informs her that her husband is alive but has defected to the East. He says that if she wants to be reunited with her husband arrangements will be made to get her out of the country to which she agrees but is all as it seems?

A modest but better than you would expect spy drama from quota quickie specialists, Butcher's Film Distributors, who seem to be enjoying some resurgence of interest in their prolific output of low budget programmers as many of them including this one are finding their way on to DVD. Reginald Hearne's script is at times confusing but for once there is some suspense to be had as Betty McDowall's distraught wife seems to be going along with the enemy agents to join her husband who has allegedly defected. The story is kept moving at a good pace by director Ernest Morris whose career was almost exclusively in b-movies and he is helped a lot by Walter J Harvey's atmospheric black and white camera-work. The acting especially from McDowall and Vincent Ball is good all round.

"At the moment you are neither wife nor widow..."

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 19 January 2020]

Like most Cold War thrillers the plot is largely incomprehensible. But like most British 'B' movies of the early sixties it doesn't really matter as one savours the cool black & white photography, old cars and buttoned-down Jackie Kennedy-style elegance of Betty McDowall and Clare Owen as the ladies caught up in a rather dream-like web of intrigue (which even requires the former to go beguilingly blonde at one point). Plus an even more than usually weird little cameo from Marianne Stone in glasses like bottle bottoms.

It's all oddly haunting to experience; aided by a guitar & bongo drums score by Martin Slavin more suited to a film set on the Mediterranean and seldom paying much attention to what's actually going on but which lingers on when the film is over...

"I didn't realise it was as serious as this"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 6 October 2020]

Phil Scott crashes his plane in an eastern European country but his demise leads to all kinds of complications; is he really dead, who is Diana; is a spy ring involved? Etc. It's a complicated story (in fact I lost the plot a couple of times) that sort of makes sense. The short running time, only 61 minutes, doesn't help clarification. It is low budget but there was good location shooting and it never gets boring. The main players are fine and in the support cast it is always good to see Michael Balfour, Clare Owen and the ubiquitous (269 credits in film and TV!) Marianne Stone. There was a twist at the end which surprised one. An enjoyable mystery.

confusing spy thriller

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 21 May 2013]

Given the demand for spy films generated by the success of the James Bond films Butchers decided to have a go.However they did it with a tiny budget and a plot that would be enough for a film 2 hours long.I watched this twice and i have to confess that i still did not understand the twists and turns in the second half of the film,with a shoal of red herrings swimming around.There just seemed to me to be a large number of incidents that were unexplained.The film was competently acted and directed and the whole thing rattled along at a fair pace.However once you have partly lost the thread in this sort of film you are completely lost

Not a bad little story

[amoore-4 · 7/10 · 3 May 2023]

Kind of surprised at the 5.5 rating. It's definitely not. It's a simple story but with some interesting twists and turns. The acting is very good and at no time did I disbelieve what was going on. At the time of writing (2023) the lead actor is still alive, about to turn 100 this December. The others have all long since passed. As a Canadian I get to see many British movies here in Austria by watching a British channel on my TV courtesy of my giant satellite dish capable of capturing faint signals from abroad. This film was above the average of the ones I've seen over the years and enjoyed the way it ended.

Confused.com

[johnshephard-83682 · 4/10 · 9 August 2021]

The version of this film I saw was an incomprehensible ragbag of unexplained scenes, with the 'explanation' of the plot at the end being perfunctory and only adding to the confusion - perhaps there was a reel or two missing? It seems (I could be wrong) that Mrs Scott was being kidnapped in order to exchange her for her double-agent husband? If so, why didn't they simply kidnap her (they seemed to do whatever they liked), rather than go through all the rigmarole of faked break-ins, roping in the journalist Pam Jennings for no reason, using all that cloak and dagger business with the 'eagle' code and so on - they could have just snatched her off the street, or from her flat, as the security experts didn't appear to have her under surveillance despite fearing that she would be nabbed at any moment. Did 'Harris' appear in the film - he is credited in the cast but I must have missed him? How did they find that abandoned car, and where did it lead them? Wilson , who died in the mini crash, had forgotten to change his address - what? The woman from the newspaper office was working for the security people, and then phoned someone to pass on Pam Jennings' address, after which a 'copper' stops Jennings in her car park and checks her address - what's going on there? And who killed the newspaper woman and why? (I think they said it was Harris). Too many loose ends and illogical activity. I am totally prepared to accept that I simply wasn't paying proper attention, but if someone could give a coherent account of what actually happened, and why, I'd be grateful.

'An Enjoyable 60s B-Flick'

[carmenjulianna · 7/10 · 30 August 2023]

'Echo of Diana' is one of those British B-Movies that does exactly what one expects... Entertains, with mystery and suspense.. Typically cast with those 50s-60s b list actors, that deliver to the best of their talent... Actress Betty Mcdowell, is a dead ringer for the actress Jane Griffiths... I completely get them mixed up, they're almost like twin sisters..... Dermot Walsh pops up towards the end...

I recommend this enjoyable mystery on a Sunday afternoon:).

Having seen this 60s black & white crime drama quite a few times now, I find It' still enjoyable to watch whenever aired on 'Talking Tv'. Nostalgia eat your heart out.! British 50s/60s B-movie-crime genre, I recommend you watch them, as they're always entertaining with a great, (mostly underrated) cast. Having a large collection of this genre recorded now, Sunday afternoons seem to be mostly spent catching up viewing them all...:) Nostalgia & loving memories again come to mind... family, and my own upbringing in the 60s seem very close to my Mothers generation growing up during the war and experiencing the 50s as portrayed in these classic 50s-60s Classic British fashionable movies.. A hearty Memorable nod to our past...!

The Cold War has rarely been so boring

[myriamlenys · 3/10 · 28 April 2023]

In Great-Britain a lady anxiously awaits news about the fate of her husband. A faithful friend is on hand in order to provide moral and practical support. Then dreadful news comes in : the lady receives official confirmation, through a foreign embassy, that her husband died in a plane crash...

Doubtlessly you're aware of how the more annoying type of ketchup bottle works. You shake, you tap against the bottom, you shake, you shake harder, you tap against the bottom again, you shake ever harder, nothing happens. Then suddenly one third of the contents flows all over your plate. Now "Echo of Diana" reminded me strongly of this ketchup bottle problem. For about 95% of the movie, the viewer receives little or no information about the conspiracy underpinning the events ; and then, near the end, the exposition comes in great big dollops. (I'm not sure, by the way, that the explanation lines up neatly with all that went before.) This is not the way in which to make a suspenseful movie, let alone a suspenseful finale.

Even without this problem there is little to commend "Echo of Diana". Normally elements like missing persons, mysterious plane crashes, inexplicable newspaper notices, international cloak-and-dagger machinations, and so on should make for a potent thriller/espionage brew, but here we're definitely in tepid tea territory. The Cold War becomes about as exciting as an afternoon bingo game in an old people's home.

"Echo of Diana" is also pretty bad at suggesting deep moral or emotional turmoil. All in all, a missed opportunity.

Rare but bland

[searchanddestroy-1 · 7/10 · 15 April 2022]

This is a rare film from a lost British company form the fifties and specialized in small crime thrillers. This one brings nothing at all. It is talkative, boring, bland at the most but worth seeing if you are lucky enough to purchase it.

Echo of Diana

[CinemaSerf · 5/10 · 28 April 2024]

This is quite an enthralling little low budget British thriller as "Joan" (Betty McDowell) starts to investigate the suspicious death of her husband in a plane crash on the Turkish border. Was he a spy? We set out to discover with the help of journalists "Pam" (Clare Owen) and "Bill" (Vincent Ball) what exactly happened - is he actually dead? Ernest Morris was an old hand at keeping these moving along a-pace and does so adequately here, too, with plenty of double-crosses to keep it interesting. The jungle-drums music is of the time, and no less annoying for that - it is no substitute for taut writing.