Nancy Drew... Detective (1938)

After making a generous donation to a girls school, a wealthy matron (Helena Phillips Evans) is kidnapped. One of the school's students, Nancy Drew (Bonita Granville) takes it upon herself to find her. Based on THE PASSWORD TO LARKSPUR LANE by Carolyn Keene and directed by William Clemens. The first movie to be based on the popular Nancy Drew series makes significant changes from the books to the point that the Nancy Drew in the film is unrecognizable from the books' Nancy. The film's tone shifts more to comedy mystery rather than a more serious mystery. Many of the books' characters are either changed or eliminated entirely. That being said, this programmer is quite enjoyable and Granville makes for an appealing if somewhat ditzy Nancy Drew. The film goes out of its way to be family friendly and there is no violence on screen. The most violent incident where a family doctor (Brandon Tynan) is almost beaten to death is done off screen. In the books, Nancy had a boyfriend but here, her relationship with the boy next door (Frankie Thomas) is strictly platonic. With John Litel, James Stephenson and Frank Orth.