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Nancy Drew Films From '30s Show Tonight On TCM

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 15, 2007

The new Nancy Drew is no Veronica Mars.

But thankfully, she's no Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan, either.

Veronica Mars, the young female sleuth played by Kristen Bell on the recently canceled CW series, was glib, smart and sarcastic. She had lost her innocence but kept her conscience. There was sadness beneath her softness. And she had some dark, complex mysteries to solve.

The latest incarnation of Nancy Drew has a moral compass, too. But she's a sweet, polite, good-hearted, almost retro teen who apparently doesn't do any heavy lifting when it comes to detective work.

The new 'Nancy Drew' lands on the big screen today with 16-year-old Emma Roberts (daughter of Eric and niece of Julia) in the title role.

Tonight, beginning at 8, Turner Classic Movies will show four 'Nancy Drew' movies from 1938 and 1939 starring Bonita Granville.

These movies also recently were released on DVD, as well as the '70s Nancy Drew TV series with Pamela Sue Martin.

Granville, who died in 1988, started working in films when she was 9 and continued working into the 1960s.

She was 15 when she starred in the 'Nancy Drew' films. They were based on a successful series of teen novels that first hit bookshelves in 1930.

Granville's biggest claim to fame, however, was her marriage to film mogul Jack Wrather, who owned the rights to 'Lassie.' Granville produced and directed many of the 'Lassie' TV episodes.

Nancy of the 1930s had spunk. Today's teens seem to prefer bling over spunk.

But Andrew Fleming, director and co-writer of the new Nancy Drew movie, says his new Drew is 'the anti-superficial girl.' He told the Los Angeles Daily News that although 'self-absorption seems pervasive in girl culture - call it the princess movement - I don't see it in the girls, but in the material. There are girls like Nancy Drew out there. They're just not being represented in stories.'

RATINGS WRAP: Nearly 12 million viewers watched 'The Sopranos' finale Sunday. Only the premiere of NBC's 'America's Got Talent,' with 13 million, did better last week, according to Nielsen Media Research.