AaronCapenBanner William Clemens directed this fourth and final cinematic outing starring Bonita Granville as Nancy Drew, John Litel as her father Carson Drew, and Frankie Thomas as her boyfriend Ted Nickerson. Here, two elderly ladies call upon Carson to help them after their chauffeur is murdered. The two ladies have been living in an old mansion for twenty years, and must stay another two weeks before they can sell it to be used as a children's hospital, but someone wants to stop them, and Nancy and Ted defy authorities to investigate. The best of the series, which uses more imagination in its story, though it still feels half-baked and too abrupt, coming up short, though the three leads(especially Granville) are fine, and could have made a fifth case, sadly not to be. This plot was used on the later(and unrelated) "Nancy Drew Mysteries" with Pamela Sue Martin called 'The Mystery Of The Whispering Walls'(Much better handled too.)

bensonmum2 Nancy Drew, with the invaluable assistance of her friend Ted Nickerson, comes to the aid of two old spinsters about to lose their home. As part of their father's will, the old women must live in the house for 20 years or its ownership will change to the city. But the death of the chauffeur, a theft in the middle of the night, and voices in walls have the sisters ready to abandon their home and their legacy. It's up to Nancy and Ted to find out what's going on and, in the process, unmask a killer.Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase is probably my least favorite of the series. That's not to say it's a bad, unentertaining movie, it's just not as good as the three movies that came before it. If I had to point to any one thing that bothered me about the movie it would be the complete lack of reality. While I realize that none of the four movies in the series is set in what I consider the real world, Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase takes it a bit too far. For example, while Nancy is quite often misleading about what evidence she may have found while investigating a case, she crosses the line in this movie when she fabricates a suicide note and/or fails to tell the police about a bullet casing she's discovered. I don't care whose daughter she is or how much she has helped the police in the past, you get into real trouble when you start tampering with evidence.But enough of my preaching. Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase is still a lot of fun. Bonita Granville and Frankie Thomas are as enjoyable as ever. The movie is well paced and at an hour in length there's not enough time for a wasted scene. The comedy is often quite funny. I found myself chuckling at more than one scene (the ice piling up on the ice box for example). While there's no real mystery as to the killer's identity, watching Nancy and Ted discover the how's and why's is a lot of fun. Finally, I'm a sucker for a movie set in an old house with moving walls and secret passages. They're just too much fun!

Michael_Elliott 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.

lehartter In the last of the Nancy Drew film series, another volume is adapted for the big screen, but mostly in title and character only. Again depicted as giddy, the film takes plot elements from the book of the same title, and adds much comic relief, and much nonsense, plus darkens the entire plot with murder. In the novel, Nancy helps the acquaintances of a person involved in her first case in investigating their "haunted" mansion. Her father turns up missing, and Nancy must investigate thoroughly before she discovers the two cases are connected, by illegally entering another home and discovering a secret passageway, connected to the haunted house by several flights of a "Hidden Staircase." In the 1930 novel, Nancy carries a revolver in addition to her trusty electric torch.The film keeps a passageway between two homes, under a city street, no less, and involves much mayhem as Nancy tries to find out who killed a servant in the home of the Turnball sisters. Nancy is involved as she arranged for the ladies to donate the house to River Heights following completion of the terms of a will, requiring one of the sisters to occupy the home daily for twenty years. Ted is there for comic relief, now as an iceman. The series stoops to ridiculous comic levels, with Ted losing his pants once in public and then having his clothes stolen while he sleeps, leaving him with the choice of another public underwear appearance, or wearing "drag," turn of the century gowns, complete with a bonnet.The story resolves with silly conclusions, and not much of a staircase, and, despite drawing on the novel, is far worse than the two films not drawing on texts. Entertaining for the very young (although the appropriateness of murder is questionable) but not much fun and too much Three-Stooges humor.