User Reviews

Nancy's first solo adventure of the second season is a lackluster affair. When Nancy spies an old school chum stealing a diamond necklace from a store, she follows her and discovers that the girl (now an up-and-coming tennis star) is a kleptomaniac. She steals without even knowing she is doing it!! Apparently. Anyway, Nancy is then hired by the girl's father to, um, I'm not sure exactly. Cover up the girl's crimes or something? Something the normally very law-abiding Nancy is more than happy to do. Things pick up at the mid-point of the episode when the story shifts to Las Vegas and the girls gets mixed up in a major cat burglary scandal. Nancy feels sure that her client (kleptomaniac though she may be) is certainly not up to being a major cat burglar and there is a lot of fun to be had from trying to figure out who the real culprit is, from the healthy list of suspects. Even better, the resolution is satisfying and the answer makes sense. Provided you don't think about it too much.

Susan Buckner debuts here as the third actress to play Nancy's sidekick and she's very pretty and funny. Before this Ruth Cox played a different character and, of course, Jean Rasey was the best of the bunch playing George for the duration of the first season. Why they got rid of her is a 'Nancy Drew Mystery' to me.

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Brilliant and wealthy young tennis star Karen Phillips steals a valuable piece of jewellery from a store. Nancy sees her do it and is determined to find out the reason for Karen's inexplicable behaviour. Nancy goes undercover at an exclusive tennis tournament in Las Vegas to keep her kleptomaniac rich classmate out of trouble during a crucial match, but when a burglary of diamonds worth millions occur, the tennis player is implacated.

Liked the attempted misdirection through characters - for example, the tennis player's coach drives her too hard, perhaps so she can feel the pressure and steal, or the guy who Nancy overhears to talking to someone on the phone or the nasty private investigator out to get the tennis player. This is a well-done mystery, has nice Tennis locale and Stephen McNally starring as the tennis player's father.

Nancy drew is hired by the father of a tennis pro to keep an eye on his daughter. It seems she's something of a kleptomaniac. A series of robberies in the hotel where the latest tennis tournament is being held has Nancy concerned, but she's convinced her client is innocent. Can she solve the case and find the real criminal?

In general, I enjoy the Nancy Drew episodes. There are exception, but as a group, I find them better than the Hardy Boys episodes. Nancy Drew's Love Match is one of the exceptions. It's utterly and completely ridiculous. A quick example - Nancy faking a relationship with one of the tennis players. It's plain old stupid. The acting in the episode is pretty bad. Maureen McCormick may have been something of a 70s icon, but she can't act. Finally, the sound in Nancy Drew's Love Match is so bad it's distracting. I've written before about the dubbing or looping etc that you'll find in these Hardy Boys Nancy Drew episodes. It's pathetic in this one. I've seen dubbed Japanese films where the voices and lips match up better than they do here.

Also, by the time Nancy Drew's Love Match was filmed, Jean Rasey was no longer playing the part of George - and it really bugged me. Even though Susan Buckner is fine actress, she's just isn't right in the role.