From 1938 to 1939, Warner Bros. produced four entries in its "Nancy Drew" series. Each is a perfect delight; why didn't the studio continue making more of them? Perky, blonde, vivacious Bonita Granville is perfection as the feisty teenaged sleuth. John Litel is equally solid and dependable as her tolerant dad. Rene Riano is a joy as the Drews' long-suffering but devoted housekeeper. And the underrated Frankie Thomas outshines them all with his droll, engaging, All-American-Boy niceness as Nancy's would-be boyfriend Ted, whom Nancy drags reluctantly into each of her outlandish crime-solving schemes. This final entry packs more fun, suspense, and twisty plot turns into a mere 60 minutes than most of today's bloated bombs manage to squeeze into two hours. The Drew's home, nestled on a cozy small-town American street, complete with picket fences and old-fashioned street lights, could be a block away from the Hardy family's domain. Although done on a B-budget, the production values of the entire Nancy Drew series are first-rate (craftily utilizing the sets of Warners' big-budget films of the era). Watch "Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase" (and spend the night in a "haunted" house, shivering along with Nancy and Ted) and I guarantee you'll be hooked--and searching TCM's listings for showings of the other three entries in the series. Mystery, wry comedy, spine-chilling suspense, first-rate writing, crisp direction, and endearing performances by actors with charisma to spare--movies of any generation don't get any better than this! The Drew series quartet is a fascinating forerunner of the teenagers-in-jeopardy genre revived in 1978 by "Halloween" (and a thousand imitators) for a more blood-thirsty generation. There's not one single drop of blood to be seen in the entire Nancy Drew series, but the suspense and chills are no less palpable. Catch these unsung classics as soon as possible. After 60-some years, they are still fresh as if newly minted, and thoroughly irresistible.
