Oct.15-Oct.19, 2012 TV Club-The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries- Season 1-Ep. 7

[MacGyver]

Post your thoughts, comments and reviews of "The Flickering Torch Mystery" episode (featuring The Hardy Boys) of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries here.

[tomswift2002]

In the Peggy Herz book on the series I remember she wrote that the band in this episode was suppose to be known as "The Flickering Torch", although that didn't come across in the episode.

[MacGyver]

I've got that book too- I think you're right on that. I'll have to look for that when I re-view (and review) the episode later this week. I think "The Flickering Torch" wound up becoming the name of the club...

[MacGyver]

I finally got around to rewatching this episode yesterday and I hope to have a review up of it soon. And hopefully I can get caught up on the other few episodes soon too.

[MacGyver]

For the second time in a row, we have an episode here that is named after one of The Hardy Boys books. However, "The Flickering Torch Mystery" episode is again vastly different from The Flickering Torch Mystery book. I have only read the revised version thus far, so I'll be comparing it to that one, but though the plots are completely different, again there are a few vague similarities to the book. (Just as the previous Hardy Boys episode, "The Disappearing Floor" had a few vague similarities to its book namesake.)
      After flipping through the book and watching the episode, I can say this for the few similarities- both do have scenes at an airport and both involve The Hardy Boys flying a plane. Frank and Joe fly a plane as part of a case they're working on for their father at the start of the story, and that much is the same in both the episode and the book. In the episode, Frank and Joe wind up guiding in the plane of an engineer who works at the airport. As it turns out, this is the man they came to see to inquire about the disappearance of a sound engineer for Tony Eagle's band (and Tony Eagle is played by real life rocker Ricky Nelson.) The man (Haskell) has no information for The Hardys and won't let them on the plane he's working on, which makes them a bit suspicious. In between seeing scenes of Frank and Joe flying and having their little adventure at the airport, we see Fenton Hardy at a Tony Eagle concert, working alongside Chief Collig to provide security. This is a very nice addition to the cast to see- Herbert Voland appears in the role of Chief Ezra Collig and has some interactions with Frank and Joe that are very similar to the books! It is always great to see a classic Hardy Boys character come to life.
Aunt Gertrude shows up in the episode too, though she doesn't do much more than let Frank and Joe know that the wife of the missing sound engineer is on the phone for them. Frank and Joe assure her they're working on the disappearance and will hopefully find him soon. One other thing to note about this episode- we get to see a lot of the Hardy house, including Frank and Joe's bedrooms. (And for another little bit of trivia- the actress who portrayed Aunt Gertrude, Edith Atwater, had acted together with Herbert Voland once before in a 1960s sitcom called Love on a Rooftop.)
          And while I'm pointing out trivia, though I don't know a ton of Rick Nelson's songs, I do know he plays about 7 of them in this episode- they may not all be the full version of the songs, but we at least hear snippets of some of his classic hits- including the main one I know from him- Garden Party.
This is one of the first episodes where we get treated to some classic rock, as we will continue to see some other famous artists show up on the show and sing some of their hits in different episodes (including Shaun Cassidy, of course! )
     Frank and Joe meet Tony Eagle who quickly forms a friendship with them and takes them to see his plane that Haskell wouldn't let them see. They wind up running into some guard dogs at the airport and they run inside the plane to escape. Chief Collig shows up with his police officers to investigate and asks Frank and Joe if they know anything they should tell him. Though Frank and Joe have already formed some suspicions, they have nothing solid to offer Collig so they tell him as much and then leave the scene. This is a great funny scene with Collig and The Hardys, where he muses that even when they do what he tells them, he still feels like they're pulling one over on him.
   As the episode progresses, they definitely have a bit of an adversarial relationship as Chief Collig generally sees them as nuisances to his police work and becomes a hindrance to them in their investigation, as neither he nor Tony Eagle's manager or crew believe them when they warn them about a plot against Tony's life.
        Callie Shaw makes an appearance in the episode, primarily in doing some detective work and finding the missing man's car that went over a cliff. However, when Tony and The Hardys go to check it out (Tony mainly comes because the missing man, Richard Johnston, is a friend of his)- they determine that no one is in the car and no one is nearby- thus they decide that it may be part of a setup to make them think that Johnston just had an accident. Callie also is on hand at Tony's concert, staying with Johnston's wife and comforting her as she waits expectantly for her husband to show up for the concert. Frank and Joe do pick up a clue from the wreck though- part of a letter that apparently Johnston had written to someone. They go to his office to look for the original, as the one they have is a carbon copy, and find themselves trapped in the closet of his office when an intruder comes inside and sets a fire to Johnston's files. The intruder didn't know Frank and Joe were in there, but nonetheless, The Hardys nearly get burned alive in the fire. This is one of the most perilous situations we've seen Frank and Joe in thus far in the series, so it's pretty memorable for that.
      Frank and Joe become convinced, based on the telephone conversation they overheard the intruder having, that a bomb has been rigged to Tony's sound equipment. They race back to the concert and disrupt it as they look for the bomb. They don't find anything and are left embarrassed as Tony's manager is quite angry at them for interrupting the concert and Collig and the police are both annoyed and laughing.
         However, Frank spends the night reviewing the letter and figures out who it's really addressed to- not the manager (who they believe is in on the plot), but rather the engineer- Haskell. They race to the airport to stop Tony taking his flight to England and though Collig and the manager and engineer of course don't believe them, they take their van and block the airplane from taxiing off. Frank and Joe are proven right as they find the bomb and the missing sound engineer.
       Overall it's a great episode that manages to include Fenton Hardy alongside Callie Shaw, and Aunt Gertrude as well as Chief Collig into the mix. The plot is vastly different from the book- about the only other similarity is that both involve music and a rock singer (though the one in the book- Seymour Schill- is not nearly as famous as Tony Eagle apparently is. Also, I just wanted to point out that the revised version of The Flickering Torch Mystery was released in 1971, right as The Hardy Boys cartoon series was ending- I have to wonder if the cover art with Frank and Joe playing guitars with colorful lights around them isn't possibly inspired by the cartoon a little bit, along with the plot. [Frank and Joe play in a rock festival along with their friends in the book, including Chet Morton.])
           The episode also follows the standard Hardy Boys plot line with the boys' case winding up tying in with their father's case in the end. However, while "The Flickering Torch" is the name of a rock club in the book, I'm still not sure what "The Flickering Torch" refers to in this episode.

As Tomswift2002 pointed out,

In the Peggy Herz book on the series I remember she wrote that the band in this episode was suppose to be known as "The Flickering Torch", although that didn't come across in the episode.

I can't recall there being any mention of this in the episode- perhaps it was somewhere on a flyer for the band's performance or on the drumkit...? If this is what they were planning to do, then you'd think the brand new 8-track release of Tony Eagle's upcoming album which he gives to Fenton Hardy would've had "The Flickering Torch" on it, rather than Tony Eagle's name. Maybe that's the name of his backing band though- like "Tony Eagle and The Flickering Torch". Kinda like how Bruce Springsteen's backing band is "The E Street Band" but their name doesn't always make it to his album titles... (well, not unless they're all playing on it, I suppose....)
     Anyway, that could've been addressed better, but oh well- that aside, it's still a great episode that uses a few elements from the book.

[MacGyver]

As Tomswift2002 pointed out,

Quote
In the Peggy Herz book on the series I remember she wrote that the band in this episode was suppose to be known as "The Flickering Torch", although that didn't come across in the episode.

I can't recall there being any mention of this in the episode- perhaps it was somewhere on a flyer for the band's performance or on the drumkit...? If this is what they were planning to do, then you'd think the brand new 8-track release of Tony Eagle's upcoming album which he gives to Fenton Hardy would've had "The Flickering Torch" on it, rather than Tony Eagle's name. Maybe that's the name of his backing band though- like "Tony Eagle and The Flickering Torch". Kinda like how Bruce Springsteen's backing band is "The E Street Band" but their name doesn't always make it to his album titles... (well, not unless they're all playing on it, I suppose....)
     Anyway, that could've been addressed better, but oh well- that aside, it's still a great episode that uses a few elements from the book.

Okay- I went back and checked in Peggy Herz's Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys book (as well as her revised version of the book- The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew) and both quote Nancy Axelrad as saying that in the books "The Flickering Torch" became the name of a band and on the TV show, it became the name of the club. I think somehow either Mrs. Axelrad got mixed up or the book mixed it up when it was printed- because in The Flickering Torch Mystery (revised verison), "The Flickering Torch" is the name of the club that Frank and Joe and friends play their music at. So I'm guessing that on the show it was supposed to be the band that was named "The Flickering Torch"- however, if this was the case, it didn't come across in the episode that I can tell.