Oct.7-Oct. 13, 2012 TV Club-The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries- Season 1-Ep. 6

[MacGyver]

Leave your thoughts, comments and reviews on "The Secret of the Whispering Walls" episode (featuring Nancy Drew) of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries here.

[MacGyver]

I have sadly fallen behind with this as that unfortunate "real life stuff" has kept me busy for the last few weeks. I hope to have a review up for this episode soon though. And then I will get back on track with the next episode up.
And I should have been saying this from the first episode, but hopefully it goes without saying that in these TV show/Media discussion posts, among the reviews it is very likely to have some SPOILERS for the episodes, for anyone who hasn't seen the episodes yet. I do try to avoid giving away too much within reviews but sometimes it seems rather unavoidable in order to cover the whole episode.

[MacGyver]

Okay, I finally re-watched this episode last night, so now I can offer a review of the episode. "The Secret of the Whispering Walls" is a great Nancy Drew episode that plays out very similar to the books. And of course, with good reason- this is the only of the Nancy Drew episodes (as far as I know) that is evidently based on some of the books. From what I understand, this episode is supposed to be based at least somewhat on The Hidden Staircase and The Secret of Red Gate Farm (#2 and #5 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Series, respectively. Of these two, I have only read The Hidden Staircase and though it's been a long while, I do recall it as being one of my favorite Nancy Drew books and also bearing some similarities to this episode.)
    We start out with Ned driving Nancy and George home from the movies. Interesting to note that George gets out first at Nancy's house (apparently she's spending the night) and then a few minutes later Nancy comes in after saying goodbye to Ned privately. It's moments like this where we get some hints of Nancy and Ned's growing relationship, though it never seems to be fully fleshed out. We'll get another hint of this by the end of the episode too. George and Nancy come across someone breaking into the house and stealing some of Carson Drew's files. They scare the guy off and wind up conking Carson Drew on the head as he comes up to the window of his study to survey the damage the intruder caused.
            As it turns out, the escrow papers for Carson's Aunt Ruby and Aunt Lela (both of whom Nancy also addresses as Aunt) have been stolen and he calls them to let them know that Nancy and George will come to explain everything to them while he and Ned go to get the papers replaced. Nancy and George have a nasty near run-in with a neighbor of Ruby and Lela- a man called Dinko Warner. He is the one buying the place from Ruby and Lela and he nearly runs into Nancy's car with his tractor. As it is, Nancy winds up with her car stuck in the mud and so she and George have to hike the rest of the way to the aunts' house on foot.
          Once there, they hear the dire warning of Lela regarding the demons or evil spirits that haunt the house. Here we get a hint of the spooky things to come in the episode. Ruby chalks up the noises Lela hears to her cough tonic, but Lela insists that the spirits don't want them to sell the house. Nancy and George ask Walter Tobin, a farmhand/butler who, along with his wife, works for the aunts, about the spirits, but he refuses to say anything on it. Nancy and George soon find out that there are indeed strange noises that go on at night when they hear clanking and whirring as they are trying to sleep. We also see some of George's reluctance to investigate with Nancy at first, though later she does go with her to investigate the next night. (Again, remember that this first season George was essentially something of a combination of the personalities of Bess and George.) Nancy finds the wall to be hollow in the closet in her room and discovers a false panel covering a tunnel behind the wall. She goes to explore the underground tunnels and sees someone in there as well. She has a bit of an adventure in there when she falls on a sharp drop from a ledge but manages to catch hold of the ledge- and then softly drops herself to the ground as we find out it's not that large of a drop after all. (But for first time viewing it's a great dramatic moment that is incredibly true to the often-times literal cliff-hanger moments of the books! ) I also like the candlestick she uses for light- that just adds to the feel of it all. And of course, most of the action happens in the dead of night- that always helps make things a little spookier. Nancy eventually finds that the tunnel leads from the house to Dinko Warner's well, who lives next door at the moment. Nancy also sees lights blinking on and off from the house and from a car parked outside.
     In the mean time, Ned and Carson had had their own run-in earlier that day as they were trying to get the papers needed. A blue van runs them off the road and sends them to the hospital. Ned calls Nancy in the morning to let her know that they will be delayed and of course Nancy winds up getting him to tell her the whole story, though Ned had been trying not to reveal it all, so as to not have Nancy worrying about her father.
Nancy and George take the trash out for Nancy's aunts that morning, as Walter evidently didn't get to it, but then they find a 20 dollar bill stuck in a tree. They also discover burnt bits of other 20 dollar bills in the ashes. Nancy and George take them back to investigate them further and then come to realize that the burnt 20s they found have the same serial number and Nancy figures that they must be counterfeit bills. She checks the barn where Walter parks his van and discovers a trapdoor there. Just as she discovers this, Walter comes up behind her and asks what she's doing there. She asks him if he lost the bill she found and then gives him the 20 dollar bill she found as he claims it as his own.
         Later that night Nancy and George go back into the tunnels to investigate and run into Dinko Warner, who's also investigating. (He entered by going down his well, where he run upon Nancy the other night.) Dinko runs across Walter and his wife and some others and a printing press for counterfeit money. Dinko gets captured by Walter and his wife and Nancy goes to rescue him as George goes back to call for help. (She calls up in the tunnels and Lela hears her, who thinks she's hearing the spirits again. Ned comes in to the house at that point and is able to let George know that he's already called the police per Carson's request and that they should be there soon.)
         Nancy and George are are able to escape from the tunnel, though Dinko stays behind for a bit, distracted by the bills left lying around, but Walter and his wife have set up a bomb to destroy the printing press. It's a race from there to get out in time when they run into George in the tunnel (who couldn't find the way back out) and then Walter and his wife are on the run from the police. In the end, though they deny everything when they are finally caught by the police, the truth comes out when the counterfeit bills come flying into the air from the well, followed by Dinko.
      Nancy, Ned, George, Carson, and Aunt Lela and Aunt Ruby have a meal to celebrate and wrap things up, as Dinko and his wife come by to let them know that the land is really worth more than the aunts knew, since a developer was planning to buy both Dinko's land and the aunts' land. However, Dinko agrees to split the profits with them evenly and now the aunts have even more money for their new life in Las Vegas. And Nancy gives Ned a kiss on the cheek for bringing the cops in and coming to the rescue- yet another example of their burgeoning relationship.
       That's a quick rundown of the plot. The episode had some spooky elements that made it fun to watch as well as a solid and standard mystery plot. However, the counterfeiters in this episode were ready to kill Dinko Warner with a bomb, so that definitely amped up the action and suspense there.
Everything was done pretty well, with the characters getting the right balance for their respective roles on the show. Overall it is a solid and fun episode and it offers Nancy Drew fans a chance to see some of the classic Nancy Drew books (at least in some fashion or another) brought to life!