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Monday, January 14, 2013

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries -The Disappearing Floor (1977)

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries
The Disappearing Floor
In my previous reviews of the first two episodes of the Hardy Boys, I was starting to get concerned, because I didn't enjoy them nearly as much as I remembered liking them as a child.  However, I enjoyed the third episode more than the first two, and now I'm thinking the series just needed a few episodes to get a feel for what it was doing.

Hardy Boys in the Doorway
The first episode had a horror theme, with a "haunted house" scenes in a graveyard, and characters dressed up as monsters.  The second episode had an outdoor adventure theme, involving camping in the mountains, falling over a cliff, and fighting off a mountain lion.  For the third episode, the Hardy Boys enter sci-fi territory, in a story involving UFOs, holograms, and a missing scientist.


Flashing Saucer
I enjoyed this episode quite a bit.  The Boys deal with a lot of far out stuff in this episode.  First, they encounter a UFO.  Then they discover a mysterious abandoned house in the woods full of weird rooms.  One room grows after Joe Hardy enters it, like something out of Alice in Wonderland.  Another has a "disappearing floor" that looks solid, but Frank falls through it like it's not really there.  A third room leads to a wide open day lit wilderness filled with wolves, even though it is in the middle of the house, and it's dark outside.  Throw in some run-ins with Soviet Union spies, and a hunt for a missing American scientist, and we end up with one heck of an adventure.

Hologram Ballet
In the end, the Boys crack the case, and discover a logical explanation for all the weird events.  It reminded me quite a bit of the end of a Scooby Doo episode where the Mystery Incorporated gang unmasks the villain and explain how he achieved all of his otherworldly deeds.

The Red Room
This episode was a lot of fun, and my favorite of the series so far.  I like the way the Hardy Boys are so clean cut and All-American, but there is always a bit of creepy weirdness hovering around at the edges, almost like a less self-aware version of Twin Peaks.  I could definitely see Frank and Joe sitting around in a diner with Agent Cooper, swapping crime-solving techniques over slices of cherry pie.

Rating: 3½ Robots (out of 5)








The Faint - I Disappear


More screencaps after the jump...




Hardys in the Rear View

A Game of Chess

After the case, Fenton Hardy smoked marijuana and stared at this hologram for HOURS.

Breaker Breaker, Big Daddy

UFO WTF

Watching the Saucer Flash

Buzzed by a UFO

Flashing Saucer 2

Negative Negatives

Commie Creeps

A Mysterious Man in the Woods

A Lovely Home

"Am I shrinking, or is the room growing?"

Daylight Wilderness Room

Weird Room

Information is Exchanged

Joe Peeps the Creeps

A Snarling Wolf

The Investigation Continues

A Deduction is Made

Head Shot

Pizza Power!

Brothers

The Secret Computer Lab

Spying in the Dark

TV Party

Callie

Return to the Weird Room

Television Control Panel

Vanishing Scientist

The Hardy Boys

The Missing Scientist

3 comments:

  1. I am going to be watching this episode tonight, so good thing I got a sneek peek!

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  2. Watched it several times - great episode, I'm the Anonymous! Love the show, do some blog reviews on Season 3 of the Hardy Boys! :) Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Hi. This blog is on a temporary hiatus right now, but I plan on bringing it back soon. I'm currently working on reviews of the original Battlestar Galactica, but I'm waiting until I get the whole series done before I start publishing them. After that I'll probably be tackling season 2 of the Hardy Boys. I don't currently have any copies of season 3 on video, but hopefully I'll track some down by the time it comes to write about that.

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