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“The Twisted Claw”
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Original: 1939 John Button (217 pages)
Revised: 1969 Tom Mulvey (177 pages) – For Sale
Revised Outline: Tom Mulvey
Revision: Altered
Art: 1939 Paul Laune
Art: 1962 John Leone
Art: 1969 Rudy Nappi
Notes: Harriet S. Adams also signed a release form for the original edition.
In 1944 the text on page 217 was modified to include the title of the next book.
PC edition with Nancy Drew title list on back cover is scarce.
The Hardy Boys defeat “The Order of The Twisted Claw” smuggling gang.
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Nancy Drew
“The Secret of the Whispering Walls”
Season 01; Episode 06
Reviewed by Mark Wilson
Synopsis (no spoilers):
When documents regarding the sale of a family farm are stolen from his office, Carson Drew sends Nancy to ensure the buyer doesn’t try to take possession before they can be replaced. Nancy and her friend George encounter far more than just an impatient farmer however, including ghostly noises, secret passageways and mysterious lights in an upstairs window.
Narrative (spoilers):
Act 1: The episode opens at the Drew residence, just as an intruder breaks into Carson’s office. At the same moment, Ned, Nancy and George are returning from the movies. George runs inside and upstairs while Nancy lingers a moment to say goodnight to Ned. Rifling through files, the intruder hears the girls enter and switches off the light, only to inadvertently knock over an ashtray just as Nancy comes inside. Hearing the noise, Nancy begins to enter the office as the intruder slams the door in her face and then subsequently escapes through a window. George rushes back downstairs, where she and Nancy discover the office has been vandalized and the drawer to her grandfather’s old desk broken. Hearing footsteps outside the window, they both grab umbrellas with George smacking hers over the “intruders” head, only to embarrassingly discover it actually belongs to Carson.
The following day while inventorying his ransacked office, Carson informs Nancy that the only folder missing is one containing the sales documents for their Aunt Lela and Ruby’s farm, and that he’ll have to drive to the state capitol to replace them. Knowing this will delay closing escrow on the sale until the following day, he telephones the elderly sisters who are upset and confused over the news. Carson assures them however that Nancy will come there personally to explain everything further, and warns them not to allow a Mr. Warner to take possession until all the papers are signed. Nancy and George pack their bags and leave later that day.
During their drive to the farm, Nancy tells George that Aunt Ruby married a real southern gentleman several years ago, and notes that the ladies may seem a little strange. She also confides that she’s uneasy about the property sale as she never cared much for Dinko Warner, the prospective buyer, and adds that he used to purposely scare her with his tractor when she would visit as a child. Suddenly a farm tractor pulls out in front of their path from an intersecting dirt road, forcing Nancy off the highway and into a ditch. The driver accuses them of trespassing, to which Nancy retorts that she has every right to be on her aunt’s property. At that moment she and Warner recognize one another, with Dinko proclaiming the property as his, and Nancy informing him it won’t be until escrow closes the following day. Outraged, Warner states that he doesn’t believe their story about the papers being stolen, and upon seeing their suitcases accuses them of lying and trying to move into the farm themselves. Nancy demands he pull her car out of the ditch, but Warner angrily drives off warning them to go back home. Stranded, the girls retrieve their suitcases and walk the rest of the way to the farm.
Aunt Ruby and Lela excitedly welcome the girls on the front steps, but their homecoming is cut short when Warner rides up on his tractor and angrily warns the older women that it will be their fault if anything happens to the girls inside the old house. Ruby dismisses the warning, but Lela claims there are spirits in the house who don’t want them to sell, prompting Ruby to roll her eyes and usher the group along. As they enter the house however, someone can be seen watching them from an upstairs window. Meanwhile on their way to the state Capitol, Carson and Ned are still puzzling over the unusual theft just as an old van rapidly comes alongside their car and repeatedly rams them until they are knocked off the highway and crash into a dirt field.
Act 2: That night after an enjoyable dinner, Ruby and Lela give all the credit to their new caretakers Walter and Sylvia, adding that the bees have been thriving since the couple took over the running of the farm. Ruby laments that they will miss them, to which Lela replies that she doesn’t believe Warner will keep a promise to care for the bees once the sale is final. Ruby retorts that he’ll be breaking the law if he doesn’t, and Nancy confirms the sales contract requires him to maintain the bees in the same condition. Ruby then asks Walter and Sylvia to prepare the girls room, but Lela warns they won’t get any sleep, claiming she hears ghosts through the walls that don’t want the farm sold. Ruby scoffs and again rolls her eyes, then excitedly informs the girls they are moving to Las Vegas. After wishing each other goodnight, George asks Walter if he’s ever heard the ghosts. He replies that he hasn’t as he and Sylvia live in the cottage out back, but then adds that he doesn’t believe the women will be happy leaving, especially as the honey market is currently booming. Upon being asked by Nancy what he thinks Lela actually hears, Walter become serious and pauses for a moment, and then without answering says it’s time for him to make his rounds and secure the house. Puzzled, Nancy then wonders aloud why they haven’t heard from her father.
At that moment, Carson is seen lying in a hospital bed as Ned enters the room to inform him the Emergency Room doctor has ordered x-rays. Carson asks Ned to call Nancy first thing in the morning to inform her they’re running behind schedule, but to withhold news of the accident. He adds that he wants to review the deeds further, finding it odd that they’ve encountered two unfortunate incidents, seemingly indicating someone doesn’t wish the property sale to go through.
Later that night, frightened in her bed by strange noises emanating throughout the room, George screams and runs into the hallway, nearly colliding with Nancy who has heard them as well. After switching bedrooms, Nancy gets dressed and searches George’s room in an attempt to find the source of the echoes and ‘whispery’ sounds. After examining the fireplace and tapping on all the walls, she discovers a paper wall in back of the closet behind some hanging clothes. Lighting a candle and punching through the paper, Nancy enters a hidden passageway where the strange sounds become louder. Unable to see that the floor stops just inside, she almost falls over a ledge to the level below, grabbing a pipe to save herself until her feet find a nearby ladder. Following the winding cavern-like passages, she continues some distance until she finds herself on the other end, climbing up from inside Dinko Warner’s well. Seeing Ruby and Lela’s property in the distance, she notices a light flashing from one of the bedroom windows to a parked vehicle that signals back, just as Warner confronts her with his gun.
Act 3: Nancy manages to talk her way out of the situation, but leaves Warner and his wife visibly suspicious. The following morning, Nancy receives a call from Ned who informs her about the highway incident and provides a partial license plate number, the letters “BLA”. Nancy in turn discloses her and George’s plans to investigate the strange goings-on, only to realize as she’s hanging up the phone that someone has been listening from another line. Nancy asks Ruby and Lela about her discoveries, and the women explain that there was once an entire catacomb of tunnels running beneath the house utilized for smuggling in the 1890s, but that they were long since sealed-off. Upon hearing of the flashing lights and truck, Lela suggests it was likely one of the honey trucks. At that moment Ruby notices that Walter has forgotten the trash, so Nancy offers to remove it to a burn pile on the far side of the property. Arriving there by jeep, Nancy and George discover a $20 bill stuck in a tree branch, and some unusual material only partially consumed in the burn pile. Taking both back to the house, they notice Walters truck by the barn and Nancy goes inside to investigate, where she discovers a second trap door entrance to the tunnels, camouflaged underneath a pile of hay. Just as she begins to climb down however, a suspicious Walter confronts her, to which she replies that she thought he may’ve lost the $20 bill and was looking for him.
Returning to her bedroom, Nancy and George closely inspect the debris from the burn pile, and discover two partial $20 bills with identical serial numbers, which can only be explained by counterfeit. That night while hiding outside, the girls observe a van and someone in a window signaling one another. Following the van to the barn, they peer through a window and discover its license plate begins with the letters “BLA”. Rushing back to the house, they grab flashlights and enter the tunnel’s closet entrance, not hearing as someone locks the door behind them.
Act 4: As Nancy and George explore the tunnels, Dinko Warner hears the strange noises coming from his well, and mystified descends into the tunnel below to investigate himself. Making their way down a rock-carved stairway, the girls barely manage to conceal themselves as Warner walks past, and they then begin following him. Suddenly coming upon a large makeshift room, they spy Walter, Sylvia and two associates operating a printing press while discussing their counterfeit operation, gloating over their plan to ship $40 million in counterfeit bills to Europe in exchange for $4 million in real currency. At that moment Warner confronts the group, only to be overpowered and bound, while the girls watch hidden behind a large rock.
Sending George back for help, Nancy continues to observe the group as Walter sets a time-bomb while the others grab all the counterfeit bills they can carry and ascend up through the trap door entrance to the barn above. Nancy unties Warner, as meanwhile George attempts to get Ruby and Lela’s attention by yelling through the walls, only to have Lela hear her but then panic thinking George’s voice coming from the fireplace belongs to a ghost. Fortunately, Ned arrives in the house at that moment and recognizes George’s voice, who instructs him to send the police that Carson had just called moments before to both the barn and Warner’s well. The police subsequently arrive at the barn just as Walter and his gang are preparing to drive away, prompting them to reenter the trap door entrance to the tunnel in an attempt to escape through Warner’s well. Passing by the printing press, the gang grabs whatever leftover bills they can carry, just as George meets up with Nancy and Warner, and the three begin following the gang as they rush to the well before the bomb explodes. Additional police units arrive at the well just as Walter and his gang emerge, followed closely by Nancy, George and Warner. Walter claims to the officer in charge that he and his cohorts were searching for the missing girls, and denies their accusations of counterfeit, believing that the bomb will destroy any evidence of their operation before the police can investigate. At that very moment the bomb indeed detonates, but to Walter’s surprise and dismay, a geyser-like mass of counterfeit bills explodes up through the well, showering all those below and providing ample evidence to support Nancy’s accusations.
Finale: Gathered together with Carson and Ned the following day, Ruby, Lela, Nancy and George are having lunch when Warner and his wife arrive. At Mrs. Warner’s prodding and in gratitude of the girls having saved his life, Dinko reveals that he’s known all along that a development company wishes to buy both their properties, and that Ruby and Lela’s farm is worth twice what he had planned to pay them, suggesting they should therefore all share in the proceeds equally. Carson then reveals that he learned of the development plans at the capitol the previous day, while Ruby and Lela rejoice at the news, excitedly telling everyone they will now have twice the money for Las Vegas.
Similarities to the Original Novels:
This episode appears to be based on the novel “The Hidden Staircase” (revised edition), Volume 2 in the original mystery stories. In both the novel and the episode:
• The story begins with the villain entering the Drew household in an attempt to delay the family’s investigations and legal activities surrounding property sales. Nathan Gomber claiming Nancy’s father is in danger to delay railroad property acquisitions in the novel, and a thief stealing documents to delay a farm sale in the episode.
• Nancy and a friend travel to an old mansion and country estate that is no longer in operation but well maintained, owned by two older female relatives. Helen Corning’s Grandmother Miss Flora and her Aunt Rosemary in the novel, and Nancy’s Aunt Ruby and Lela in the episode. Upon their arrival, they are rudely confronted by a prospective buyer of the property, Nathan Gomber in the novel and Dinko Warner in the episode.
• The older women are described as being “odd”. In the novel by police officer Tom Patrick, and in the episode by Nancy herself.
• The old house is reported to be haunted. In the novel Aunt Rosemary asks Nancy to solve the mystery of a ghost who makes strange noises and apparently steals jewelry and other items, and in the episode Aunt Lela describes hearing spirit voices at night.
• Nancy and a companion are nearly hit by an off-road vehicle. With Carson by a runaway construction-site truck, and with George by a farm tractor.
• Carson is violently attacked in a car while driving, which prevents him from joining Nancy’s investigation at the ‘haunted’ house. In the novel he is drugged unconscious in a taxicab and kidnapped within a second vehicle, while in the episode he is forced off the road by another vehicle, resulting in an accident. In both cases, a clue to the second vehicle helps Nancy solve the case. A newspaper advertisement for a used car lot in the novel, and a partial license plate number in the episode.
• After searching for it within a fireplace, Nancy finally discovers the entrance to a secret passageway built into the back wall of a bedroom closet, nearly falling into a winding underground tunnel that connects the old house with another property. The entrance is in a bedroom in Riverview Manor in the novel, a companion house to the one in which Miss Flora resides, both originally built at the same time by her husband’s ancestors, while in the episode the entrance is in George’s bedroom and leads to Dinko Warner’s well. In both cases, the tunnels were originally dug when the properties were constructed, but long since abandoned until their discovery and subsequent use by the villains. Nancy initially confronts the villains within the tunnel in both stories.
• Flashing signal lights between a house and a vehicle are observed by Nancy. Between Willie Wharton in Riverview Manor and Nathan Gomber’s car in the novel, and by Sylvia in an upstairs bedroom and Walter’s van in the episode.
• The villains secretly listen as Nancy discusses her plans. From a hidden room ‘listening post’ unknown to the residents in the novel, and from another phone line in the episode.
• Nancy and her friend search outbuildings on the property for the secret tunnel, but are only successful in the episode. In addition Nancy discovers a vital clue in the form of discarded paper left behind in a pile. Newspaper pages in a rock pile in the novel, and counterfeit bills in a burn pile in the episode.
• A principal character wishes to acquire both houses; in a plan to ultimately sell the combined property to a development project the older women are unaware of, thereby becoming the sole profiteer of the proceeds. Nathan Gomber in the novel and Dinko Warner in the episode.
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