It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I just watched "Nancy Drew Detective" from 1938. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although it was a bit silly in parts and every character was iconic- or maybe stereotypical. Critics would say it was a "formula film." Maybe so, but I sure liked it!The plot: Nancy Drew (a teenager with her own car, whose father is a well-known attorney) and Ted Nickerson (her slightly older neighbor boy who loves her madly but won't ever show it) solve a kidnapping case of a wealthy elderly lady. Ted has to disguise himself as a nurse while Nancy becomes a widow in order to locate the lady they are rescuing.There is much activity involving an idiot police chief, bad guys who catch Nancy and tie her up, and threaten to shoot her (but who never even thought about the possiblilty of doing what we'd expect bad guys to do these days,) racing about the countryside in a roadster following homing pigeons, even aerial mapping from a biplane (which cost $10 for the flight!)It was well worth watching just for the scene where Nancy gets her hands on the bad guy's gun- a .45cal 1911- shuts her eyes and lets the bullets fly! The police chief, after he'd come out of the cover he leaped into to avoid being shot, remarked that he was surprised that she could even lift "that hand-cannon!" There are also hidden delights such as Ted's being a ham radio enthusiast (remember this is in 1938) as well as being an amateur photographer who developed the aerial photos. It was fascinating!This film was aimed at a young audience, who probably rolled their eyes at it when it was first shown, but who would have admired the qualities that Nancy displayed: courage, independence, perserverance, loyalty- but also being mischievous and not inclined to follow orders meant to keep her safe. They would have seen right through Ted's little act of "aw shucks, I'm a guy, I want Nancy to leave me alone to do guy stuff," which they were intended to see through, and see that Ted was steadfast and determined to help Nancy in every way, even though he loved her dearly and was worried about her getting in trouble over her head. Sex did not raise its head at anytime in this film, and its omission bothered me not at all; there was plenty of love and tenderness.All in all, a delightful film. If they made movies like that these days, I'd be at the theater regularly- but they don't, and I'm not. Which is a pity!

That title goes to "Nancy Drew - Trouble Shooter", in my opinion. But "Detective" may be the (relatively) "grittiest" of the series - which is ironic, because it's also the only one where no murders occur. However, it has a real sense of danger sometimes, as the bad guys take Nancy very seriously and try to intimidate her into stopping her investigation. Bonita Granville gives a typically bright and spirited performance, and she has excellent chemistry with both John Litel (Nancy's loving father) and Frankie Thomas (her on-and-off boyfriend Ted, who is sometimes the unsung hero of these films - here he is even the one who makes the smartest realization: that they should look not for the place that the pigeon was going TO, but the place it was coming FROM). Technical note: this is the only one out of the 4 Nancy Drew films in the official DVD collection that has a severely damaged print on two or three instances. **1/2 out of 4.

I've tried looking it up but can't seem to find any reference to the importance or usage of that particular number: 2380 - twenty-three eighty.They'd use it like, "I'll bet you twenty-three eighty that..." or "It was twenty three eighty million miles away" or something of that sort, but always as twenty-three eighty.Does anyone know what that term refers to?As for the movie itself, it was just OK.I always pictured Nancy Drew as more sure of herself and less bungling and helpless girlie-like.

In my opinion, the two best series of movie murder-mysteries adapted from books featuring an amateur female sleuth were the 'Miss Marple' treats of the early 1960s (with the unforgettable Margaret Rutherford) and the Nancy Drew comedy-thrillers of the late 1930s (with vivacious, lovely Bonita Granville as the constantly imperilled teenaged heroine). Unfortunately, only four entries were made in each series, and each and every one are to be cherished."Nancy Drew--Detective," the first of its quartet, is an unalloyed delight. A wealthy elderly woman donates her fortune to Nancy's highschool (to build a swimming pool) and then promptly disappears. Nancy, spurred to action by the beating of the woman's physician, enlists the reluctant aid of her athletic boyfriend (the extremely appealing and good-humored Frankie Thomas) to find out what happened to the missing lady. Clues are provided by a carrier pigeon, a breathtaking airplane expedition, an ominous gunman who breaks into the Drews' residence threatening them to keep quiet--or else!Undeterred, Nancy drags Ted on a hair-raising adventure where they eventually track down the missing benefactor to a bogus nursing home on Larkspur Lane (password to anyone trying to enter the front gate is "blueberries"). What makes the film (and its successors) such delectable diversions is, besides the intricate plots, fast-paced direction, and splendid production design and cinematography, is the definitive performances by Ms. Granville, Thomas, John Litel (as Nancy's attorney father), Rene Riano (as the Drews' hyperventilating housekeeper), and a host of first-rate supporting actors.The Nancy Drew films are as beguiling today as they were over 60 years ago (and, incidentally, depict family life in that era with a sassy sweetness that is truly enchanting).Don't miss "Nancy Drew--Detective" or any of its three sequels, which TCM has been showing with regularity. These four treasures of yesteryear sparkle with wit, suspense, expert plotting and performances today's movies couldn't recapture if they tried to. The talent so abundant in the studio films of years gone by no longer exists.