The Mystery of Witches' Hollow

Frank and Joe Hardy try to visit Captain Maguire, the uncle of their father's assistant Callie, but discover that he disappeared in a mysterious wooded place called Witches' Hollow, and are plagued with mysteriously threatening happenings (strange sounds, legend of a cat, an intruder breaking into their log cabin, Joe chasing after that person and almost falling off a cliff) that seem related to an old local legend. Their only clues are a mute's sketches.

Enjoyable mystery with the Hardy boys putting their inquisitive skills to work in an episode that throws everything but the kitchen sink to conjure up a spooky atmosphere. It's very much like Scooby Doo. There's some humorous lines from Chet, who is upset the boys brought him to witches Hollow.

Fenton Hardy sends Frank and Joe to a place called Witches' Hollow to check on man named Captain Maguire. When they arrive, however, they find that Captain Maguire has mysteriously disappeared. With a lot of other strange things going on in Witches' Hollow, the boys (naturally) decide to investigate.

The Mystery of Witches' Hollow is one of those episodes that features plot devices that appeal to me. A local legend of a witch, supposedly haunted woods, strange noises at night, and a large cat on the prowl - it's these type episodes that I prefer. These are the episodes (and I'm not giving anything away) where you know that someone is using a local legend and everything surrounding it to scare people away so they can go about their illegal activities undetected. It's the basic Scooby Doo plot structure. And it works on me. The Mystery of Witches' Hollow has the added bonus of featuring a few really creepy, almost frightening (well, frightening for The Hardy Boys - I mean you know it's all going to turn out okay), scenes. My biggest complaint is that some of the nighttime scenes are so dark, it's difficult to see what's going on. Maybe it was the copy I was watching, so I won't take too much away from it. Also, at the end, the hows and whys of what the baddie was up to is a bit muddy with the final moments feeling rushed. Still, overall, the episode is a fun one and a fair sight better than the first Hardy Boys' episode in the series.