Nancy Drew, Reporter

1939 - Warner Brothers
Directed By William Clemens



SYNOPSIS

Nancy Drew (Bonita Granville) enters a newspaper contest for student reporters. She switches her story assignment with a 'real' one... a woman (Betty Amann) on trial for murder. Nancy believes the woman is innocent and drags her neighbor Ted (Frankie Thomas) into the search for a missing piece of evidence that can exonorate the woman.

MY THOUGHTS

A fun, fast-moving classic.

'Reporter' is the second in a four film series cranked out in 1938-39. It is a B-movie with a run-time of roughly an hour and 8 minutes, but has enough plot to fill at least 90 minutes. Warner Brothers knew how to make fast-paced films and this is a perfect example. There's no fluff, everything exists to move the plot along.



Unlike the fairly serious book series that inspired it, Nancy Drew, Reporter is a comedy. It has the same light breezy tone of MGM's Thin Man series (without the booze!) and is a great mix of laughs and detective work.

Nancy Drew could easily come off as a pushy, annoying know-it-all, but Bonita Granville adds oodles of charm to make her more than bearable. She is always outsmarting all the adults around her but not rubbing their faces in it.
Granville has great chemistry with her neighbor/desired boyfriend Ted played by Frankie Thomas. Thomas is responsible for much of the humor and has great goofy appeal that makes him a perfect sidekick. Ted's tag-along sister and her friend are annoying, but are not in the film enough to get on anyone's nerves.

Because of the fast pace and short running time a possible budding romance between Nancy and Ted is only hinted at, thankfully, because it would likely have slowed down the pace of the film.

Nancy Drew, Reporter is a fun romp filled with much humor, suspense, intrigue, and even a silly musical number and is highly recommended