This month fred flare’s Keith and Lulu discuss
bringing Nancy Drew to the screen as
they debate the visual clues of Password
to Larkspur Lane.
Lulu: I know I’m losing credibility because I say this almost every
time but really, truly,
I think Larkspur Lane was my favorite so far! It
was just so…
Keith: Cinematic.
L: Totally.
K: I know! Chris and I have this fantasy of making a Nancy Drew feature film
one day
and I really believe this one has "screenplay" written
all over it. It has more flower
metaphor than The Orchid Thief and The
Hours combined. It’s so juicy!
L: So visual.
K: I know! I could go on and on…
L: Do it!
K: Okay. But let’s take it to a new level… Hey, readers! In an
effort to give you the
same visual experience we enjoyed in this episode
we’ve added a few links to
illustrations from the book as well as other
references to help you get a better picture
of the mystery at hand.
L: Yes, each time you see a word or phrase
in pink – my favorite color – click
to view.
Think
pink!
K: Let’s begin immediately at Larkspur Lane…
L: Alright. At first you think perhaps Larkspur Lane refers to Nancy’s
garden since this
episode begins in her own backyard as she’s cutting
larkspur to enter the local charity
flower competition.
K: I did a little sleuthing and learned quite a bit about larkspurs or, as
they are more
commonly known today, delphinium. In the June ’99 issue
of Martha Stewart Living
it refers to growing them as "the quest for
the grail,at least, for that is what the
delphinium continues to be to so
many gardeners – the
object of desire, still unattained." Apparently, they’re very
hard to grow!
L: Nancy’s are perfect, though.
Later in the book she even wins
first prize, only to
be attacked by a wild dog!
K: That’s what’s so great about Nancy. She expertly juggles Martha’s
world with that
of David Lynch. As the story opens we find her admiring her
blue flowers in the breeze
when an injured homing pigeon lands at her feet with a strange
message: "Trouble
here. After five o’clock blue
bells will be singing horses. Come tonight."
L: Her detective instincts kick in immediately
and she wires the International
Federation of American Homing Pigeon Fanciers to give them the registered
number on the bird’s leg ring. Then she goes right back to snipping
her final flowers
and is off to the competition. The show must go on!
K: Let’s not forget that she also cares for the injured bird. She places
it in a cardboard box lined with cotton and tells it, "Do get well." Oh,
I love her so much! She’s smart – with a mind like a steel trap – but
has a heart of gold.
L: Yeah, I feel like we really get a good picture of her in this one. They
vividly describe
each of her looks, which I adore, and even show us her bedroom.
We learn that it is
yellow and white and that she has a little homeoffice of sorts with a desk
and a clock
radio next to her bed where she listens to her fave "musical
program."
K: Don’t they even show her watching TV?
L: Yeah. Nancy, the housekeeper Hannah Gruen and Hannah’s niece, Effie,
watch a
"
television play."
K: Wait! We must interrupt this program so I can say that I think Effie deserves
her
own spin-off! I fell for her immediately. She’s this sweet 17-year
old cutie who loves
movie stars and boys…
L: Effie’s awesome! And she has amazing style. Very Teen
Vogue. When
we first meet
her she makes a grand entrance eating a banana, dressed in
a pink kimono and high-
heeled satin mules.
K: There is some serious girl power packed in this episode!
L: Yes. Let’s focus, though.
K: Right. Okay, let’s see… On her way from the flower competition
Nancy sees Dr.
Spire, the famous bone specialist of River Heights, get kidnapped!
L: Intrigue! He’s later returned to his office where he tells Nancy
he was blindfolded
and taken against his will to care for an old woman in
a secluded mansion. The woman,
who we later learn is named Mrs. Eldridge, secretly entrusts him with a gold
bracelet.
K: Which he, in turn, gives to Nancy. She suspects the woman is being held
captive
against her will and sets out to rescue her. First stop?
L: The jewelers!
K: This leads to maybe the most exciting chase scene ever! Oh, Lutricia,
it’s too exciting! You tell our readers…
L: Okay. As Nancy and Mr. Stone, her jeweler who is also a close personal
friend,
examine the bracelet they happen to notice a large woman in a butterfly
print dress
looking through the plate-glass window. This same woman accosts Nancy as
she exits,
steals her handbag and clocks her! Nancy chases her into Browns
Department
store
where there is a serious catfight
in the Misses dressing rooms.
K: I was so worried for Nancy! Thankfully, she retrieves the bracelet, but
her
nemesis escapes!
L: That was stressful. This sort of situation would unglue any ordinary teen
agent, but
our Nancy is simply off to her next appointment. Like I said,
the show must go on.
Nancy’s got even bigger fish to fry…
K: Yes, there’s this whole other subplot with Nancy’s former
galpal Helen.
L: Readers will remember the two were pretty inseparable in earlier episodes
before Helen got hitched.
K: In this book Helen has asked Nancy to investigate a curious phenomenon
near the
lakeside home of her grandparents, the Cornings. There’s this
creepy
circle of blue
fire that appears each night out in the woods…
L: Much suspicion falls on the home’s middle-aged manservant Morgan,
because he’s
an ex-con. Nancy even busts him trying to steal the Corning
treasure, this odd array
of French crystal flowers with jeweled insets, but she manages to clear
his name
and bring a whole ring of swindlers to justice!
K: As is often the case in Nancy’s world – we could even add
it to our list of cherished
Nancy Drew themes – the two seemingly unrelated
mysteries are actually intertwined.
L: It’s funny how that always happens… In this episode the men
behind Morgan’s
downfall are the same ones who have imprisoned all
these old ladies, including Mrs.
Eldridge, to extort them of their money
by promising, of all things, a fountain of youth.
K: I think that’s what this whole episode is really all about: aging.
Did you notice how
there are so many elderly people in this one? From the
Cornings and Morgan to the
mysterious Larkspur Lane mansion where, once Nancy finally discovers its
secret
location, there’s a wheelchair brigade
of six ladies that she must rescue!
L: And even the name Eldridge is an awful lot like "elderly." I
swear, Nancy Drew
should have a retirement home named after her, given all
the older people she’s
helped in the first ten episodes alone.
K: I agree. It all goes back to what we were talking about in our first review,
The
Secret of the Old Clock. Lots and lots about time and aging in these
books.
L: I think all the emphasis on flowers – which are fragile and short-lived – only
reinforces this theme.
K: And then to make matters worse, Nancy even has to disguise herself as
an old
woman in a black veil and speak the password to Larkspur Lane – "singing
horses" –
to get into the mansion and further her rescue mission.
L: Yeah, this one had a lot of interesting details like that… I really
enjoyed the contrast
of all those older characters against the teen ones
like Effie, Nancy and her whole
fresh-faced, clean-cut, crime-solving gang. Ultimately, Nancy Drew is the
bridge
across generations.
K: Just like she still is today.
L: Yes. Without sounding too hokey, Nancy really is loved by so many generations
of
women, from young girls to their mothers to their grandmothers and so
on…
K: And there’s you and me, kid.
L: I couldn’t be happier.
K: Right back at ‘cha.
L: Hey readers! Just for fun, ask a woman you don’t know that well – it
could be your
neighbor, your boss, a cutie at the coffee shop – what
they think of Nancy Drew.
You never know, our girl might help you make some new friends. Email me at
lulu@fredflare.com and tell me what happens! The first five entries will
get a free
gift so
be sure and also give us your
mailing address.
K: What’s the gift?
L: I can’t tell you. It’s a mystery! But I can tell you this… Next
month we’ll review
The Clue of the Broken Locket!
05/2003
