Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (1939)

Fourth and final entry in the wonderful Nancy Drew series starring the ever-adorable Bonita Granville. This time out Nancy's trying to help a couple of elderly sisters. They want to donate their mansion for a children's hospital but their father's will stipulates the ladies must live in the house every night for twenty years before it's theirs. With two weeks to go before the twenty year deadline, someone is trying to scare the old ladies out of the house. So Nancy investigates, dragging best friend Ted (Frankie Thomas) into trouble along the way. As in the other films in the all-too-short series, pretty Bonita Granville is extremely likable. John Litel as her dad and Frankie Thomas as her sidekick are also great. Frank Orth's Captain Tweedy is amusing. The culprit behind the mystery is pretty obvious but it's still fun. Seems odd nobody suggested someone stay with the two old ladies to keep them safe, but I guess we wouldn't have had much of a movie then. Exciting finish, as the Drew series was usually good at providing. Wish there had been more of these movies.

The entries is this series are pretty much alike. Nancy Drew (Bonita Granville), a teen-aged girl, finds some mystery in Riverside Heights and pursues it, despite the warnings of her father and friends, to its happy end. Everything is shot on the cheap on the Warner's back lot.The startling feature of this film, and the others, is Bonita Granville. While not strikingly attractive, she has what might be called a presence. Oh, she overacts outrageously but so does everyone else.But she flits from place to place like a hummingbird, flounces flouncing, both hands held in the air like Fred Astaire, whipping along, subject to speech pressure like a hypomanic. Except when whispering -- "There's a hidden door somewhere." And even that deserves an exclamation point which I refuse to give it.Her friend, confidant, and unwitting fool, is Ted Nickerson, a gawky adolescent boy, who was only featured in one film, "Ted Nickerson Discovers His Fist." Nancy Drew inveigles him into so many questionable enterprises, after most of which he winds up humiliated, and she shows so little interest in him, that at some point he must ask himself, "What have you done for me lately?" Oh, Ted. You poor schmuck. Another few years and you'd be wearing a brown uniform in a brown milieu while Nancy was back home forgetting all about you.

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (1939) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Fourth and final film in Warner's detective series has Bonita Granville returning as Nancy Drew. In this film, two old women are about to turn over their property to charity but someone is trying to haunt them out of it. You see, the women must stay there day and night for two weeks or the will is no good and the property is turned over to the city. This final film is the shortest of the four (only running 60 minutes) but it's also the weakest. There isn't any comedy to speak of and none of the mystery aspects are fully recognized. Granville is good in her role as usual but the supporting characters are weak this time out.

Wills like this one are usually only found in mystery novels. Two spinster sisters were left property by their father on the condition that at least one of them remain there every night for twenty years at which time they can sell out. Otherwise it reverts to the city. That certainly must have cramped their social life, no wonder they remained spinsters.But when the family chauffeur is murdered and other strange things happen our teenage heroine goes to work. As usual Bonita is helped by Frankie who it seems she can talk into just about anything in these films including having all American football player Thomas lose his clothes and have to get into drag which was an offense back in the day.In three of the four films law enforcement is represented by Frank Orth as the local police captain. Seeing Orth in what was his career role as the bumbling Captain Tweedy, no wonder they need Granville's help whenever a serious crime occurs.There would be no more Nancy Drew films after this as Granville left Warner Brothers. It was a nice series and I'm sure the kids in the Saturday matinée crowd enjoyed it. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler were not threatened by Carolyn Keene though.