Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter

The Nancy Drew series of detective novels was created in 1930 by Edward Stratemeyer of the Stratemeyer Syndicate (who had also created the Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, and Tom Swift novels). Stratemeyer created an outline of the character and gave it to a young writer named Mildred Wirt Benson, who, along with several other writers, would pen the series under the pseudonym of Carolyn Keene. Nancy Drew, in the earliest books, was a sophisticated, independent teenager who drove her own roadster and was always dragging her boyfriend Ned (renamed Ted in the films) into mysteries which she always solved. The novels proved to be very successful and in 1938, Warner Brothers decided to make it into a "B" picture (a cheaper, shorter film that would play in theaters with the newsreels and cartoons before the main film was shown) starring Bonita Granville, a 15 year-old actress who had been nominated for an Academy Award for her role in These Three (1936). In the space of one year, the studio made four Nancy Drew films, including Nancy Drew... Troubleshooter (1939). Filming began in early February 1939, and the cast included regulars John Litel as Nancy's father, attorney Carson Drew, Frankie Thomas as her boyfriend Ted Nickerson, and newcomers Charlotte Wynters as Carson Drew's love interest Edna Gregory, Aldrich Bowker (making his film debut in Nancy Drew... Troubleshooter) as the Drew's old friend Matt Brandon and character actor Willie Best as Brandon's servant Apollo Johnson. Willie Best was a popular character actor in Hollywood who had been previously billed as "Sleep 'N Eat" in his earlier films. Although he was called 'one of the finest talents I'd ever worked with' by Bob Hope, Best found himself cast in stereotypical 'Negro' roles. In a 1934 interview he explained the difficulties faced by an African-American actor then, "I often think about these roles I have to play. Most of them are pretty broad. Sometimes I tell the director and he cuts out the real bad parts... But what's an actor going to do? Either you do it or get out." The plot of Nancy Drew... Troubleshooter revolved around Brandon's being accused of murder and enlisting the help of his friend Carson Drew to defend him. Nancy, who is always being told by her father not to get involved, does just that and she and Ted go off to find the real killer, assisted by Apollo Johnson. At the end of the film, Warner Brothers included a segment in which Bonita Granville and Frankie Thomas appeared as themselves asking the audience to send letters to the studio before they introduced the next (and last) film of the series, Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (1939). Variety's review of Nancy Drew... Troubleshooter called it "another in the comedy girl detective series with Bonita Granville as the juvenile Nancy Drew, who takes things in her own hands and almost entirely by accident solves thing that would make Scotland Yard look sick...Bowker is excellent as the small-towner who gets involved in a murder on his farm. Roger Imhof plays the sheriff but without lending it much comedy relief. One of the unintentional laughs is the wild plane ride the two kids (Granville - Thomas) have in the air when their pilot bails out, leaving them to almost certain disaster. The way the ship spirals and loops in the air without losing the two unskilled passengers, finally coming down safely against a haystack is one of those things." Producer: Bryan Foy, Hal B. Wallis, Jack L. Warner Director: William Clemens Screenplay: Mildred Wirt Benson (story), Kenneth Gamet Cinematography: L. William O'Connell Film Editing: Doug Gould Art Direction: Ted Smith Music: Heinz Roemheld Cast: Bonita Granville (Nancy Drew), Frankie Thomas (Ted Nickerson), John Litel (Carson Drew), Aldrich Bowker (Matt Brandon), Charlotte Wynters (Edna Gregory), Edgar Edwards (Chuck Marley). BW-68m. by Lorraine LoBianco SOURCES: The Internet Movie Database www.wikipedia.org Motion Picture Series and Sequels by Bernard A. Drew The Detective in Hollywood by Jon Tuska Variety September 30th, 1939