Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 23-November-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium

The Nancy Drew Series (1938-1939)

The first book in the Nancy Drew series was published in 1930. Not long afterwards the famous sleuth had made it to the big screen following an overhaul apparently meant to appeal to Depression-era moviegoers. While her father Carson Drew (John Litel) remained a handsome widowed lawyer, Nancy (Bonita Granville) was slightly younger than in the books, a bubbling and rambunctious mid-teen. I suspect that an independent, headstrong girl was more marketable than an independent, headstrong woman at the time, but perhaps the need to draw the books' fan base and the popularity of Shirley Temple accounted for the change. I have long wondered why Hollywood has never tried to depict Nancy straight up — 18 going on 30 and sophisticated as hell — but the early movies borrow a lot of her charisma.

Nancy lacks female friends in this Drewniverse, which means no shared adventures with Bess and George. However, neither she nor the viewer has cause to lament, for the real star of the show is Frankie Thomas as her long-suffering neighbor, Ted Nickerson. Unlike frat boy Ned Nickerson in the books, Ted is a sidekick instead of a beau and an excellent comic foil.

Nancy Drew - Detective (1938)

Based on the book Password to Larkspur Lane, the first (and best) episode in the series finds Nancy looking for a rich old lady who disappeared just before donating a large sum of money to her prep school. Nasty thugs are to blame, who openly threaten the Drews and seem willing to back up their threats. But Nancy is not easily put off. Spurred by the gibes of the police captain (Frank Orth) and heedless of her father's wishes, she pursues a quest that involves homing pigeons and Ted dressed up like a female nurse. (I'm pretty sure Ned never did that.) The result is a nice little movie that introduces enjoyable characters and hums along with healthy suspense.

Nancy Drew - Reporter (1939)

This one also hums along until an unfortunate scene in which two incidental pipsqueaks do a song-and-dance number (like I said, worshipping at the altar of Shirley Temple). Excepting this mistake, Reporter continues to endear one to the series. Motivated by journalistic impulses as well as the cause of justice, Nancy sets out to find the real bad guys after a seemingly innocent woman is arrested for murder. She shows both exceptional ingenuity and her usual talent for putting Ted on the spot, although this time it's a dimwitted police officer who ends up in drag.

Nancy Drew - Trouble Shooter (1939)

This is the weakest of the films and marks a series shift to an overtly comic tone. Unfortunately, this shift does not play to Granville's strengths and may feel sacrilegious to fans of the original books. Nancy and her father head to the country to save an old friend accused of murder. There, Carson and Ted (who happens to be in the neighborhood) become smitten with an unmarried local while the viewer is faced with an appalling black character who makes me all the more gratefully awed at what happened this past election. As Nancy grapples with a possible upheaval in her family, she again proves her mettle by taking on shady crop dusters after an exotic plant puts her on their scent.

Nancy Drew - The Hidden Staircase (1939)

Although this movie shares a name with the second book, it bears only slight resemblance to the original story. Two elderly sisters must stay in their house until a certain date, stipulated in a will, before they can claim ownership and donate it to a hospital. As the broker of the charitable deal, Nancy takes it personally when strange hauntings make the sisters consider moving out early. Stealing Ted from his summer job, she attempts to discover how an intruder is getting into the house and why. The scene where Ted helps with a forensic study of guns is quite amusing and contributes to his multiple run-ins with the law. You don't know who to feel more sorry for, the guys Nancy puts behind bars or the boy who becomes a comic martyr to her sleuthing.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.