InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

MartinHafer This is the fourth of four Nancy Drew films by Warner Brothers starring Bonita Granville. It was based on the Drew story "The Hidden Staircase", though I've never read the book and have no idea how close it is to the original tale. But, knowing Hollywood, many liberties were taken with the story.The story begins by learning that two elderly sisters, the Turnbulls, stand to inherit the home they've been living in many years. However, the will has an odd proviso--that they MUST remain in it every night until some goal is met. Well, they've abided by the will so far, but when their servant is murdered and all sorts of mayhem follows, the sisters' resolve begins to wane. Naturally, the pushy Nancy Drew has decided to make the case her business and naturally the cops investigating are all idiots!This film is one of about 600,000 B-mysteries made by Hollywood...and they were churned out like mad by both the big studios and the tiny ones. Why? Well, they were pretty cheap to make and made plenty of money! And, compared to the rest of them, this one is a bit better due mostly to better and more competent direction. Too many of them simply looked rushed but this one seemed more polished and complete. Well worth seeing.

lewis-51 This is the first of these Nancy Drew movies I have seen, having just watched it on TCM. In general, I love movies from the 1930s, but this one was disappointing. When my daughter was growing up, I read to her every night, and often read a Nancy Drew mystery. It would usually take at least a week to finish one. They were quite good juvenile fiction, intriguing and suspenseful. This movie has a totally different feel and tone. It is basically a comedy with a mystery subplot. Most of the characters are just silly compared to those in the books, especially Nancy, "Ted" (what's wrong with "Ned"?), and the police chief. It got better once the staircase was discovered, and the last ten minutes or so was clever and entertaining. But still, I would much rather have a story faithful to the novels.

tday-1 When I was growing up I loved kid's adventure books but passed on Nancy Drew,she was for girls only. When I actually read one I was surprised how phony the whole thing seemed, Nany was perky and perfect with an ideal life style. A widowed,indulgent father,a loving housekeeper,a generous allowance ,her own car,no home work and no chores. The Warner Bros. series wisely trimmed the fat,eliminating Nancy's girlfriends who helped her in cases,making Ted,not Ned,more prominent. In a couple of the movies he tries to avoid her and her schemes but she gets him involved anyway. It's highly unlikely the series could have continued,both leads were maturing out of the teen-age stage,Bonita left Warner bros. for MGM,so that was that. Interestingly,the series involved murders,not missing treasure or stuff like that. Bonita plays Nancy like a real girl,not perky and perfect with every step,she messes things up even with her enthusiasm.

whpratt1 It always was a great joy to read Nancy Drew books and being able to see "The Hidden Staircase" was a wonderful thing Hollywood was able to give to the public in the 1940's. Bonita Granville, Frankie Thomas and John Litel gave excellent performances and made the Drew characters come to life. Films in those days had a limited budget and it was an innocent age without all the blood and gore in todays films. No criticism is necessary for these Classic Films with Classic actors which are still being shown in the year 2000 and forever.