ShareThisBy JOHN BEIFUSS
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
From our supposedly enlightened perspective of 2007, we might wish the teen amateur sleuth who inhabits the Nancy Drew movies of the 1930s were more the "Miss Sherlock" others describe her as and less the typical motion-picture "girl."
Nancy may be a fine detective, but she credits her "woman's intuition" with helping her catch a crook in two of the four films; and in the final movie in the series, "Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase," she screams in terror at the menace of a bullfrog.
Even so, the four Warner Bros. 'B' movies collected in "The Original Nancy Drew Murder Mystery Collection" are pretty hard to resist, at least for fans of detective films produced during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood.
The box set was released by Warner Home Video, in conjunction with the opening of the new Warner Bros. "Nancy Drew" movie. The set lists at $24.98.
The set -- which contains two double-feature discs -- includes "Nancy Drew -- Detective" (1938); "Nancy Drew... Reporter" (1939); "Nancy Drew ... Trouble Shooter" (1939); and "Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase" (1939), which contains this appropriate warning from Mr. Drew to his daughter: "A murder case is nothing for a little girl to get mixed up in!"
Bonus features on the DVDs are limited to breathless vintage trailers. "That one gal riot squad is headed this way ... her hobby is catching crooks!" promises the "Detective" promo.
The "Reporter" ad describes Nancy as "that danger-chasing kid... Hunting the clues behind the news...," while the "Trouble Shooter" trailer enthuses: "Gangway! That trouble-hunting gal detective is on the loose again."
If the new "Nancy Drew" movie presents the young sleuth (Emma Roberts) as a wholesome, even somewhat square girl who seems to belong to the past, the 1930s Nancy (Bonita Granville) is very much a creature of her times. She drives an open-topped roadster with rumble seat; wears the latest outfits; and demonstrates a command of teenage lingo. "Super" and "swell" are two of the newfangled slang terms that befuddle her elders; she also seems to have a healthy teenage appetite, judging from such exclamations as "Hot sausage!" and "Boy, this is the pancakes!"
The hepness isn't surprising: The first Nancy Drew film was produced during the character's first decade of existence. The original Nancy novel, "The Secret of the Old Clock," was published in 1930; by 1938, when Nancy made the transition to the movies, 15 books were in print.
The "Nancy Drew" films demonstrate that the series movies of the 1930s and '40s were the precursors of the television programs that replaced them. These "Nancy" mysteries were produced in quick succession with the same stars, supporting characters and behind-the-camera personnel, including journeyman director William Clemens and screenwriter Kenneth Gamet.
Spunky and pretty, Granville -- who was nominated for a supporting actress Academy Award for "These Three" in 1936 -- makes an energetic, rambunctious and appropriately "nosy" Nancy, who is supposed to be about 16 in the films.
Veteran character actor John Litel is Nancy's lawyer father, widower Carson Drew; and Frankie Thomas -- later the star of the 1950s sci-fi program "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" -- is Nancy's harried unofficial boyfriend, Ted Nickerson.
As a potential significant other, Ted isn't very supportive. He tells Nancy she's "just like a woman" because she's always "snoopin' around" with her "dizzy schemes." He adds: "Somebody'll knock your block off."
Despite the period sexism, Nancy's industriousness, intelligence and bravery (frogs notwithstanding) make her a de facto role model for girls as she investigates kidnappings, murders and con artistry.
The crimes may be gruesome on occasion, but in deference to Nancy's age if not her sex, the movies contain little violence and no onscreen murders. Andy Hardy-style domestic comedy and teen interaction sometimes overwhelm the sleuthing.
Occasionally, the movies surprise. One shot in "The Hidden Staircase" finds Nancy standing on a car's running board, holding a Luger (attitudes about guns certainly have changed since the 1930s). In her fashionable vintage attire, she looks more like Bonnie Parker than Bonita Granville.
(Read John Beifuss' movie blog at www.thebloodshoteye.com.)
