#41 The Clue Of The Screeching Owl

[tomswift2002]

Published:  1962
Adapted for TV in 1970 for the Animated Series and 1977 as The Mystery of Witches Hollow for the Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries

Plot: The Hardy's are in Pennsylvania Dutch country to answer a call for help from one their father's friends, Captain Maguire.  Unfortunately, when the Hardy's arrive, Captain Maguire is nowhere to be seen there are weird sounds coming from the hollow that the Captain's cabin overlooks.  Plus, dogs are disappearing, so is a local legend about a witch being dragged to hell by Satan in the 1700's for putting spells on dogs and causing them to die true?  It's up to the Hardy's to find out.

Review:  Overall, this book is about average.  It's not the best Hardy Boys story, but it is still pretty decent.
Of course this book's claim to fame is it's adaptation to TV not once but twice (the first was for the Animated series, while the more famous version is from the 1977 Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries), of course reading this book, and comparing it to the TV episode I noticed that the 1977 TV version was, essentially a very loose adaptation of the book.

Some of the things that are the same:

-Frank, Joe and Chet are part of the story
-Captain Maguire is the reason that the boys are on the case
-the Hardy's are shown to be reckless to the police
-there is a character named Donner, and the German meaning of Donner (Thunder) is referenced in both
-Simon is mute and sketches to talk in both
-there is a wildcat in both

The things that are not the same:

-Callie Shaw plays a major role in the TV version, whereas in the book she is only mentioned is passing reference
-the Hardy's drive their yellow sedan in the book; on TV it is a brown van
-Callie is Captain Maguire's niece in the TV version and she goes to visit him with the Hardy's and Chet, while in the book there is no reference to Callie being related to the Captain. 
-in the book Mrs. Thompson is a woman in her late-thirties with a 7 year-old son named Bobby and a pet beagle named Skippy; on TV she is a woman possible in her 50's who is a maid for Captain Maguire with no child. 
-the Hardy's and Chet visit a travelling circus with a tiger trainer who goes by the stage name "Colonel Bill Thunder" a couple of times in the book; this is deleted in the TV version
-Walter Donner and William "Colonel Bill Thunder" Donner are identical twins and have an unmarried sister, Elizabeth Donner, in the book; on TV there is no mention of William Donner being a twin brother or sister
-Walter Donner is a sheep farmer in the book and self-made hermit who lives in the hollow; on TV he owns a construction company that is doing work on the local highway
-the hollow is called Black Hollow in the book; on TV it is Witches Hollow
-on TV the gang is stealing constuction materials from the highway project; in the book they are hijacking trucks and stealing furs, instruments that go into the nose cones of guided missiles and other cargo
-the boys buy a dog, whom Chet names Mystery (and whom he becomes the master of and later takes him back to Bayport), to help solve the dog-napping that's going on in the hollow and people believe is linked to the old legend of Satan dragging a witch down to the center of the earth (hell, essentially) in the 1700's after she was killing dogs and causing cows to go dry, and apparently on the night that she was last seen, people heard the witch screaming, and in the present time of the book, people have been hearing the screaming again; on TV people hear the screaming, and relate it to a similar legend, although the dog plot is completely removed, except for a small joke with Fenton Hardy babysitting Chet's dog (which, as I recall, is clearly not a beagle)
-Fenton Hardy is not in Bayport at all in the book---he's in New Jersey, very close to Pennsylvania Dutch country; on TV he's shown to be in Bayport
-Simon, while he does draw and sketch in the book to communicate, he does not sketch a thunder cloud and lightning to represent Donner and have the Hardy's guess as to what he's referring to, as he does on TV, instead he does a full on sketch of Donner that the boys immediately recognize as Donner.
-there is a crooked lawyer in the book, the lawyer is deleted in the TV version
-Chet stumbles upon a major connection between the Hardy's and Fenton's cases, on TV Chet is more there for comic relief and does not find any connection


Book Rating: 6.5 out of 10

[MacGyver]

Nice review! I especially appreciate the comparison between the book and the 1970s live action TV version. The book is one of my favourites- I enjoyed the action and the spookiness of it.

[tomswift2002]

Of course it's interesting to think that its been 56 years since the book came out.  As I was reading it, I was thinking about how, if it was ever updated, how things could change in it, and really the only thing that I could think of was that there might be a mention added of the Hardy's having cell phones, but are in an area of the country that has zero reception and are thus forced to look for a payphone (unless the author decided to have the Hardy's have a satellite phone---but even in that case there are still places where the phone would not work).  Just recently the CTV Ottawa station aired a story about a small town that was fighting with Bell to keep the only pay phone in the place, because the town did not have cell phone reception (https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1337165), so even today this exists, and would make perfect sense in The Clue Of the Screeching Hollow, especially since Captain Maguire's cabin and Black Hollow are described as being 2 hours by car from the nearest town.

[MacGyver]

Even without a pay phone, most businesses have landlines and some individuals still have them as well- so it's possible Frank and Joe could have used someone's phone at their house or at a business too. But yes- it does make sense to have some pay phones still around and it's always neat when I run across one that's still operational.

[CalvinKnox]

Here is the Animated version on Youtube.  It has Sam Radley instead of Maguire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etIiENRjN_I

Another difference in the 1977 TV version is that Frank says that they "aren't far from Salem", which would seem to indicate that it takes place in New England instead of Pennsylvania.

[CalvinKnox]

Just recently the CTV Ottawa station aired a story about a small town that was fighting with Bell to keep the only pay phone in the place, because the town did not have cell phone reception (https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1337165), so even today this exists, and would make perfect sense in The Clue Of the Screeching Hollow, especially since Captain Maguire's cabin and Black Hollow are described as being 2 hours by car from the nearest town.

I remember that story!  I listen an Ottawa radio station that airs CTV news from 6-7 p.m.

[tomswift2002]

Here is the Animated version on Youtube.  It has Sam Radley instead of Maguire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etIiENRjN_I

Another difference in the 1977 TV version is that Frank says that they "aren't far from Salem", which would seem to indicate that it takes place in New England instead of Pennsylvania.

In the book they kept saying the author kept saying that the boys were not far from New Jersey, so I knew that the book was set on the eastern seaboard.  Are the two states close?

[VLoneWolf]

I remember reading this book.  It was very good.    If you look at a map of the United States Pennsylvania and New Jersey are next to each other.

[CalvinKnox]

Massachusetts were Salem of the "Salem Witch Trials" is, and were the TV episode seems to take place, is located quite a ways away from Pennsylvania Dutch country.  Salem is part of the greater Boston area and seems nothing like the setting of the episode.  Likely just some west coaster making a connection between "Salem" and "Witches" without knowing much about the eastern seaboard or the history there.

[tomswift2002]

Here is the Animated version on Youtube.  It has Sam Radley instead of Maguire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etIiENRjN_I

I'm just watching this now.  Boy is the story ever different from the book and even the 1977 episode.  And whoever put it up mislabelled the second episode, since its not The Mystery Of Devil's Paw, it's The Yellow Feather Mystery.  Plus I watched another episode that they had labelled as What Happened at Midnight, but it actually contained The Secret Of the Old Mill & The Missing Chums.  And the one they labelled The Missing Chums is actually Footprints Under The Window and another episode (I haven't watched the second episode yet).