Nancy Drew, Reporter

Plot

The second entry in Warner Bros.' popular detective series, Nancy Drew, Reporter presented young sleuth Bonita Granville at her busybody best. This time, the irrepressible Miss Drew has entered a junior newspaper-reporter contest and, determined to win, insinuates herself into the ongoing investigation of the Lambert murder. Despite overwhelming evidence, Nancy refuses to believe that the murder victim's young ward (Betty Amann) is the culprit and instead shadows a mysterious man (Jack Perry) sporting a cauliflower ear. The brutish stranger and his floozy of a girlfriend (Sheila Bromley) lead Nancy and her faithful sidekick, Ted Nickerson (Frankie Thomas Jr.), on a merry chase that, naturally, ends with the apprehension of the real murderer. Trapped in the Bledenburg Hotel along the way, Nancy and Ted ingeniously call attention to their plight by changing the hostelry's neon sign to "Bedbug Hotel." Juvenile stars Granville and Thomas are this time aided by teenage singer Mary Lee, of Gene Autry Western fame, and child actor Dickie Jones, the latter insisting on imitating Donald Duck. A highlight of the film has the four youngsters performing swing versions of nursery rhymes in order to pay for their Chinese dinner. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Review

Like other films in the series, Nancy Drew, Reporter seems to be drawn not so much from the popular Carolyn Keene series of mystery novels as from bits and pieces of other, often much better films. Thus, Bonita Granville's interpretation of the title character, while winning and appropriate in the context of the film, has almost nothing in common with the Nancy of the books. Instead, she's a generic teenager as filtered through a celluloid lens -- energetic, bubbly, impulsive, dramatic, wholesome, naïve, and somewhat flighty. Ted is a malleable piece of putty for Nancy's hands, more comic relief than romantic interest. And Mary and Killer come across as slightly older refugees from an Our Gang short. The plot is also fairly standard issue, and can easily be stopped to allow this quartet of kids to literally sing for their supper in a sequence that has nothing to do with the film. Still, in spite of all this, Reporter is pretty good "cute" entertainment, and a step up from the first entry in the Nancy Drew series. The story is a bit more involving, the sequence in which Nancy changes the letter sign the hotel sign is effective, the basic overall premise of a journalism contest is fine, and the younger kids' fireworks shenanigans are actually worked into the story's outcome. The direction is fast and fairly fluid, and if Ted's boxing impersonation and Tweedy's cross-dressing don't make much sense, they're still amusing. All in all, average but enjoyable. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

Cast

• Bonita Granville - Nancy Drew
• John Litel - Carson Drew
• Mary Lee - Mary
• Sheila Bromley - Bonnie Lucas

Larry Williams - Miles Lambert; Betty Amann - Eula Denning; Dick Jones - Killer Parkins; Olin Howland - Sgt. Entwhistle; Frank Orth - Capt.Tweedy; Florence Halop; Charles Halton; Joan Leslie - Bit Part; Charles Smith; Frankie Thomas - Ted Nickerson; Jack Wagner; Lois Verner; Thomas E. Jackson - Bostwick

Credit

William B. Clemens - Director, John Langan - Director, Frank Dewar - Editor, Heinz Roemheld - Composer (Music Score), Arthur Edeson - Cinematographer, Bryan Foy - Producer, Kenneth Gamet - Screenwriter, Carolyn Keene - Short Story Author

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