This article, and those that follow, initially appeared in Filmbobbery, Volume 9, Issue 1 (Summer, 2007). That should explain any references to other pages and articles. With the recent success of Nancy Drew this summer (my review of it is […]

The first Nancy Drew feature establishes the locale as River Heights, Missouri, where Nancy goes to school at the Brinwood School for Girls. When the elderly dowager who is going to endow the school with a gift (for what the […]

The weakest series entry is the second one, Nancy Drew . . . Reporter (1939), with an ellipsis instead of dashes in the title. Why the change? As Geoffrey Rush might say, it’s a mystery. However, the third films also […]

With this entry, the series seemed to turn more comic in tone. Ted continues to be the butt of jokes even while he follows Nancy into trouble and helps her escape it. Oddly, however, there’s no romantic feeling from him […]

The fourth film was not supposed to be the last one of the series, but Bonita Granville chose to turn to more adult roles and Warner Bros. decided not to fill her gumshoes. Her Nancy is more frenetic than ever […]

By the end of the fourth film Nancy is perhaps more frenetic and impulsive than ever — Granville plays the role as if she were destined to become an adrenalized Betty Hutton — which is simultaneously entertaining and distracting. The […]