Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (film)

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase
Directed by	William Clemens
Produced by	Bryan Foy Hal B. Wallis Jack L. Warner
Written by	Mildred Wirt Benson (novel) Kenneth Garnet
Starring	Bonita Granville Frankie Thomas John Litel
Music by	Heinz Roemheld
Cinematography	L. William O'Connell
Editing by	Louis Hesse
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	September 9, 1939 (1939-09-09)September 9, 1939
Running time	60 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase is the fourth and last in a series of films starring Bonita Granville as teenage amateur detective Nancy Drew, Frankie Thomas as her boyfriend, and John Litel as her father. It was loosely based on the novel of the same name by Mildred Wirt Benson.

Plot

The elderly Turnbull sisters want to donate their mansion for a children's hospital. However, their father's will states that at least one of them has to stay in the house every night for twenty years before they can inherit the estate; there are two weeks left to go.

Then some strange things start occurring. A stranger forces his way past Nancy Drew (Bonita Granville) and brazenly searches the Drew house for related affidavits her lawyer father Carson (John Litel) has obtained. Then, the Turnbulls' chauffeur Phillips (Don Rowan) dies, though it is uncertain if it was a murder or a suicide. The frightened old ladies consider leaving their home. When Nancy recognizes the dead man as the trespasser, she begins investigating, dragging her boyfriend Ned Nickerson (Frankie Thomas) into one predicament after another, eventually getting him fired and jailed.

When police Captain Tweedy (Frank Orth) arrests the two sisters for Phillips' murder, their ownership is endangered. Just in time, Nancy and Ned discover a secret passageway in the basement linking it to the neighboring house, owned by Daniel Talbert (William Gould). Talbert would make a lot of money if a racetrack were to be built on the two properties, but the Turnbulls had turned down an offer to buy their place.

Cast

• Bonita Granville as Nancy Drew
• Frankie Thomas as Theodore "Ted" Nickerson
• John Litel as Carson Drew
• Frank Orth as Captain Tweedy
• Renie Riano as Effie Schneider
• Vera Lewis as Rosemary Turnbull
• Louise Carter as Floretta Turnbull
• William Gould as Daniel Talbert
• George Guhl as Smitty, a bumbling policeman
• Don Rowan as Phillips

External links

• Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase at the Internet Movie Database
• Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase at the TCM Movie Database
• Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase at AllRovi