Nancy Drew... Reporter


1h 8m 1939
Nancy Drew... Reporter

Brief Synopsis

A teen-aged sleuth sets out to prove a young girl innocent of murder charges.

Film Details

Genre
Suspense/Mystery
Comedy
Release Date
Feb 18, 1939
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the character "Nancy Drew" created by Carolyn Keene.

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 8m
Sound
Vitaphone
Color
Black and White
Film Length
7 reels

Synopsis

When the newspaper runs a promotional contest awarding fifty dollars for the best story written by a high school journalitst, Bostwick, the city editor, decides to wash his hands of the kids by assigning them to cover trivial topics. Undaunted, student reporter Nancy Drew, the daughter of District Attorney Carson Drew, overhears the staff discussing the Lambert murder hearing and decides to cover the trial herself. At the courthouse, Nancy sits next to a man with a cauliflower ear and listens intently as Eula Denning, the murder victim's ward, is accused of poisoning Kate Lambert for the inheritance money. Eula's only defense is that the fingerprints on a missing tin of poison do not match hers, and after the court is adjourned with Eula's conviction, the man with the cauliflower ear speeds off in his car, smashing Nancy's car fender in the process. Nancy trails the man to the Lambert estate, and when Bostwick refuses to follow up on her lead, she decides to undertake her own investigation. Tricking her boyfriend, Ted Nickerson, into helping her, Nancy tracks down the tin, only to have it stolen by the girlfriend of the man with the strange ear. Nancy discovers that the man is a boxer named Soxie Anthens, and traces his girlfriend, Bonnie Lucas, to Miles Lambert, the nephew of the slain woman. Learning that Miles will inherit the Lambert fortune if Eula is convicted, Nancy suspects him of the murder and sets a trap by printing a false story that the missing tin has been found. As Lambert races to Soxie's room to claim the tin, Nancy, Ted and Sergeant Entwhistle of the police department record his confession with a hidden tape recorder, thus bringing the real killer to justice.

Film Details

Genre
Suspense/Mystery
Comedy
Release Date
Feb 18, 1939
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the character "Nancy Drew" created by Carolyn Keene.

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 8m
Sound
Vitaphone
Color
Black and White
Film Length
7 reels

Articles

Nancy Drew... Reporter


"It's that danger chasing kid again!" proclaims the trailer announcing the second Nancy Drew movie starring Bonita Granville. This time, the teen sleuth enters a newspaper contest for teens, only to get wind of an exciting murder trial. But when a mysterious man with a "cauliflower ear" smashes up her fender on the way home from the courthouse, Nancy, with the help of awkward boyfriend Ted Nickerson (Frankie Thomas), figures out there's more to this case than meets the eye. Granville had lots of uncredited work as a kid extra in pictures like Little Women (1933) and Anne Of Green Gables (1934), but here the fifteen-year-old actress shines in a junior version of the "reporter picture,"a common profession for adventurous (and autonomous) female characters in the 1930s and 40s. (Due to studio ideas of propriety, however, the lively and appealing Granville would have to wait until Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter made later that year, after her sixteenth birthday, to kiss her on-screen love interest.)

By Violet LeVoit
Nancy Drew... Reporter

Nancy Drew... Reporter

"It's that danger chasing kid again!" proclaims the trailer announcing the second Nancy Drew movie starring Bonita Granville. This time, the teen sleuth enters a newspaper contest for teens, only to get wind of an exciting murder trial. But when a mysterious man with a "cauliflower ear" smashes up her fender on the way home from the courthouse, Nancy, with the help of awkward boyfriend Ted Nickerson (Frankie Thomas), figures out there's more to this case than meets the eye. Granville had lots of uncredited work as a kid extra in pictures like Little Women (1933) and Anne Of Green Gables (1934), but here the fifteen-year-old actress shines in a junior version of the "reporter picture,"a common profession for adventurous (and autonomous) female characters in the 1930s and 40s. (Due to studio ideas of propriety, however, the lively and appealing Granville would have to wait until Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter made later that year, after her sixteenth birthday, to kiss her on-screen love interest.) By Violet LeVoit

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

This picture was also reviewed as Nancy Drew-Reporter. It was the second in Warner Bros.' Nancy Drew series. For additional information about the series, consult the Series Index and see entry above for Nancy Drew, Detective.