Warner Home Video has announced the June 12th release of The Original Nancy Drew Mystery Collection (MSRP $24.98), a two-disk, four-film set featuring all four 1930s films featuring the feisty teenage girl detective.  Eight years after the publication of the first Nancy Drew mystery in 1930 Warner Brothers began filming the first of four Nancy Drew movies starring Bonita Granville, who invested the character with the right combination of brains, spirit and apparently boundless energy.

Produced in 1938 and 1939 the films are still fondly remembered by mystery fans.  Only two of the films, Nancy Drew, Detective and Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase were adapted directly from the Nancy Drew novels--and Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, which was the final film in the series, is by far the best. Still, all four features are fun and Nancy Drew, Reporter and Nancy Drew, Troubleshooter, even though they are not based on the 'Carolyn Keene' novels are entertaining adventures spiced with a good deal of comedy and suspense.

Warner Bros. is releasing the 1930s Nancy Drew films just three days before the June 15th debut of a new Nancy Drew film starring Emma Roberts.  With a budget far higher than any of the previous Nancy Drew movies, the new film could do very well with the youthful audience that has made Papercutz's series of Nancy Drew graphic novels a solid hit in the bookstore market (see 'Nancy Drew Sells Out').