NANCY DREW'S BIGGEST MYSTERY: 

WHY HOLLYWOOD CAN'T SUCCESSFULLY BRING HER TO THE SILVER SCREEN

Last night I visited my friend Ralph.  Ralph, now in his 80's, and I have been meeting every week for nearly ten years to watch movies together.  I have probably learnt more about classic Hollywood from him and his collection of over 1,000 films, many that haven't been available in years, than any other source.  In return I have taught Ralph about all the pop culture that took place after he lost interest.  Anyhow, last night Ralph and I watched the first Nancy Drew movie made in 1938, "Nancy Drew - Reporter," starring Bonita Granville as Nancy Drew.  Now, when I was a kid I loved the adventures of Nancy Drew. I still have a soft spot for her and have a fairly decent collection of Nancy Drew books. I was the only boy in school reading Nancy's mysteries because the series was, mistakenly, thought to be solely for girls. To be fair, I did read the Hardy Boys books once in a while but I preferred Nancy's gothic supernatural adventures much more than Frank and Joe Hardy's scientific based adventures. I've never been interested in science anyway." As to the Bobsey Twins? I was too old for them by the time I started reading Grossett and Dunlap mystery books so their adventures just seemed too juvenile to me.

Ralph also has a large collection of Nancy's mysteries in his library (much more than I do in fact) and, after we finished watching "Nancy Drew - Reporter", he and I ended up having a rather lengthy discussion about Hollywood's inability to successfully bring Nancy Drew to the big screen.

Now I'm going to be fair. I loved "Nancy Drew - Reporter". This wasn't the first time I'd seen the film and I've seen most of the rest of the Nancy Drew films from the 1930's (there were four in the series). Bonita Granville is charming and fun to watch, and her chemistry with Frankie Thomas as 'Ted' Nickerson (why they felt the need to change his name to Ted from Ned is beyond me) is incredible. Thomas is incredibly likeable and, as Ralph and I mentioned last night, far more interesting as Ted Nickerson than Ned Nickerson ever was in the books. Furthermore, the story is rather good and all the bit parts are played well. I wish these films would come out on DVD so I could add them to my collection. I love them that much! However, the problem I have with the Nancy Drew movies from the 1930's is the fact that they don't resemble the books at all. While I love watching Bonita Granville, her Nancy Drew is ditsy and hyperactive.  She is not the calculating and mature girl detective from the books. Furthermore, her best friends Bess and George are nowhere to be seen in these films at all and the classic Nancy Drew formula is not followed. All of the Grossett and Dunlap mysteries had a "formula" when they were being written and were all essentially the same in plot, just the details of the plot was different. The trick was to find new and interesting details.

However, when you look at other Nancy Drew productions since 1938 you come up with the same problems. After the four Bonita Granville films there was the short lived Nancy Drew TV series with Pamela Sue Anderson that was a spin off of the popular Hardy Boys series at the end of the 1970's (which was the closest to getting the original book series right), a second dismal attempt to bring the series to television in 1995 (oh god.  The memory of that one just hurts.) and, most recently, a terrible television movie made by Disney in 2002 featuring drug dealers and college football players. It's really a downward spiral. It goes from great, to good, to bad, to retarded in a 65 year period.

The bottom line is this - I think Nancy Drew would be a fantastic Hollywood franchise. It has so much potential as a successful cross generation family film that would probably appeal to a wide audience, much like the Harry Potter films do. So what could Hollywood do to make this work? It hurts my head that they can't figure it out because its so bloody simple! A good Nancy Drew movie would be easy to make!

First, bring back the gothic nature to Nancy Drew. The appeal to the Nancy Drew mysteries was the supernatural and gothic nature of the books. They dealt with old haunted houses, exotic locations, ghosts and other supernatural creatures. This is the one major thing that all the Nancy Drew projects to date screw up (c'mon - drug dealers and college football?). I want haunted houses, ghosts, Ouija boards, and mystical gems and such. That was what the Nancy Drew books I read were about. Creepy, people! These movies need to be creepy!

Secondly, stick close to the original Grossett and Dunlap formula with your script. Nancy is contacted by some little old widow, or some orphan, or someone rather helpless and in need, which is being either swindled, had a valuable item stolen, or some such thing like that, and promises to help them. Meanwhile, on the other side of River Heights, mysterious happenings or ghostly apparitions are seen at some creepy location. Nancy's love for a good mystery also brings her looking into that. In the end, both mysteries are linked and Nancy solves the mystery of the ghostly apparition and helps the person in need. Role credits. See? It's as easy as that! All you need to do is to write an interesting, gripping mystery that will keep us guessing to go around that simple outline. It's worked for nearly a century for Nancy Drew novels so it should work on the big screen.

Third, don't update it. Make it a period piece. A part of the charm of the Nancy Drew books is the fact that they are set in a time period that is not our own. The film should be set in the late forties or the early fifties. Now, I would suggest that liberties could be taken with social attitudes but I think a big part of the problem I feel with the later Nancy Drew projects is the fact that they were updated and had plots deemed more modern or topical (can we all say drug dealers and college football). Also, I think that Hollywood could have a lot of fun with costumes if they did this. When I was watching Bonita Granville last night I really liked her costumes. Very classic and classy - long flowing skirts, large hat, gloves. It's a retro look waiting to come back.

Fourth - keep all the characters from the original books in the movie: Nancy, her best friends George and Bess, her father Carson Drew, her boyfriend Ned Nickerson, Hannah Gruen the housekeeper, Bess and George's boyfriends Burt and Dave, amongst other minor reoccurring characters. Perhaps clever little cameos by the Hardy Boys, the Dana Girls, Trixie Belden or the Bobsey Twins could be in order (wouldn't a Sean Cassidy and Parker Stevens cameo be a scream?). However, ultimately the movie should revolve around Nancy, George and Bess. The books always did. Hollywood will want to capitalize on the Nancy and Ned relationship. I think that would be a huge mistake. Ned was always a supporting character in the books and ought to be used only as "the boy Nancy likes". Besides, keeping an audience of young girls waiting for the two of them to get together would probably be more interesting anyway.

Finally, put some time and a budget into this project. The problem with the last two Nancy Drew series was that they were thrown together so clumsily and cheaply that they lacked any heart or imagination. Make this a big movie. Not "Harry Potter," or "Lord of the Rings" big but put the same budget into it that most family films are given. Spend some of that money casting a big name actress (or at least a recognizable one) as Nancy. Now, to casting, most of the young actresses I like (Michelle Trachtenberg, Anna Paquin, Kristen Kreuk, Amber Tamblyn) are physically wrong for the part of Nancy. Who I would cast, and please forgive me friends and don't drag me into the street and shoot me for saying this or accuse me at least of selling out, would be Hillary Duff. She's not a brilliant actress but she's good enough. She physically looks like Nancy (as long as you put some red in her hair) and her name connected to this film would give it a fair bit of attention. Honestly, she is the most logical choice.

So that's it. I doubt it will ever happen. I don't have that much faith in Hollywood but I guy can hope - right?  C'mon Hollywood!  Nancy Drew for 2006!  Lets just make sure to do a good job of it.

(POP CULTURE ADDICT UPDATE DECEMBER 2006) Well someone seemed to be listening, partially anyhow.  Last week a trailer for a new big screen version of the adventures of Nancy Drew premiered on movie screens.  Being released for June 2007, Warner Brothers Pictures is putting out what may be the most promising version of the adventures of the teen sleuth thus far.  I saw the trailer and while it doesn't exactly follow all my suggestions in the above article, the trailer seems to incorporate a lot of them.  Nancy Drew, played by the pretty teen actress Emma Roberts, is portrayed as a slightly socially awkward brilliant keener and is shown crawling around haunted houses, creepy tunnels and other eerie locations.  This could be the first time that all of these key elements of the Nancy Drew books are represented in a film on the series.  However, the film is set in modern Los Angeles but Nancy maintains that sort of retro 1950's classic and innocent persona by explaining that she just isn't up to speed with LA culture being a girl from River Heights.  Also, Bess and George are listed on the Internet Movie Database, but it looks like Nancy's sidekicks are a Frankie Thomasesque Ned Nickerson and some kid named Corky.  Take a look at the trailer yourself here.  It's too early to tell if this film is going to be a hit or a miss but watch this space in June and I'll let you know my official stance on the new Nancy Drew.  Let's keep our fingers crossed.  I have high hopes.

(POP CULTURE ADDICT UPDATE FALL 2007:So did all of you folks out there get out to see the Nancy Drew movie this summer?  I'm sure some of you who had kids, as well as the old school die hards like me did.  Well  it was one of the movies I looked forward to the most seeing this year and, lemme tell you, it did not disappoint me.  In fact, I'll be so bold to say that it was pretty much my favorite film that I've seen this year,  I'm not saying it's the best movie of the year, but it's the best one I saw in theatre's anyways Anyhow, it comes down to this.  Nancy Drew first appeared in film in 1938. Nearly seventy years later she has been made into four films, two TV series and a television movie, but it's never ever been done right...until now! . Satirical humor is combined with the perfect mix of seriousness and heart making it both a great family film, but a movie that even the most hardened and cynical adult can enjoy - as long as they keep it in it's context.  If you want to watch Grindhouse but choose to watch Nancy Drew instead your not going to like it.  But if you compare it to every family film you've ever seen you'll realize that it's a notch above the usual drivel. For the first time ever the writers followed the classic Nancy Drew book formula featuring Nancy solving the mysterious death of a Hollywood actress while helping someone in dire straights. Add a spooky house, dark passages, creepy suspects and other dangers and all the classic traits of the Nancy Drew series is covered.  Now I've read where cynics keep saying the film weren't anything like the books.  Well I got to as these people if they have never read a Nancy Drew book?  I own an entire set of the original yellow back books.  I'm not claiming to an expert but this film is the Nancy Drew I remember.  And what about Emma Roberts (who, incidentally, is the daughter of B- Movie actor Eric Roberts) as the title character?  Well I gotta tell you that she is an absolutely delightful. She is smart, funny, pretty, spunky and gosh darn charming. Perfect casting. Max Thieriot plays Nancy's boyfriend Ned with a certain amount of insecurity, which makes him far more likeable and interesting then his character was in the books. Sadly, Nancy's best friends Bess and George are only in the film for a millisecond but is replaced by a twelve year old pudgy kid named Corky (Josh Flitter) who is the comic relief, but kudos goes to the writers for not making him annoying or relying on fat jokes for the comedy surrounding him. Corky is a fun character. Also features Tate Duncan as Carson Drew, Rachel Leigh Cook, Barry Bostwell and, believe it or not, a great cameo by Bruce Willis playing himself! Tons of inside jokes that only old school Nancy Drew fans, like myself, would get (like Nancy's blue convertible roadster which she, ultimately, crashes...how many of those things did she go through?) Special kudos goes out to Jeffery Kurland for Nancy's cute retro costumes and Ralph Sall for his original score (a soundtrack I am definatly going to buy). I can't praise this movie enough. I'll be buying it when it comes out on DVD. Hell...I want a sequel...and merchandise. Hear me Warner Brothers? I'll buy ever god damn Nancy Drew product you throw at me!!!!  Anyhow, if the film is still playing in your area I can't urge you enough to bite the bullet, swallow your pride and just go and see it.  Trust me.  You'll like it better then Spiderman 3.  At the very least, make it a renter when it comes out on DVD.

Also, because of the release of the Nancy Drew movie, the original four Bonita Granville Nancy Drew films have been released in a reasonably priced two disk DVD set!  No special features, but the films have been cleaned up and are beautiful copies.  After watching the new Nancy Drew film, treat yourself to the originals. You can order your own copies here.  I can't recommend these films enough!)

All content copyright Sam Tweedle 2006.