The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries "The Flickering Torch Mystery" #1.7 (1977)

Not among my favorites, 30 May 2017

Frank and Joe are looking into the disappearance of a sound engineer who just happens to do work for one of their favorite rock singers, Tony Eagle. What the boys uncover, they think, is a plot to kill Tony. The boy's father, Fenton Hardy, is handling security for Tony's concert and the boys are convinced that someone has planted a bomb at the show. Is there a bomb at the show? Is someone really trying to kill Tony? Where is the missing sound engineer and how is his disappearance tied to alleged plan to kill Tony?

I was (and still am) a fan of The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries. However, some episodes are better than others. The Flickering Torch is not among my favorites. I have a few issues, but my main grip is with the casting of Rick (or Ricky) Nelson as "rock star" Tony Eagle. It's ridiculous. In the episode, we are treated to concert footage of Nelson singing, amongst other songs, his hit Garden Party from 1972. I doubt you'd have called this mellow bit of music "rock" in 1972 and you surely wouldn't have in 1977. It's more folksy / country than anything else. The over-the-top crowd reaction shots do not mesh with the song or with what Nelson is doing on stage. It all ends up being funny, which I'm sure was not the intention. And then there's Rick's (or Ricky's) acting. Lousy doesn't begin to describe the performance. I've seen oak trees that are less wooden. I have other problems (the ineptitude of the local police, Joe and Frank acting on gut instinct instead of any real clues garnered from detective work, Fenton and the boys doing concert security, etc.), but Rick (or Ricky) is my chief complaint. Still, I've rated The Flickering Torch a 5/10. On my rating scale, that means it's pretty average – not horrible, but not great either.

Finally, what's with the name The Flickering Torch? I know what it meant in the Hardy Boys books, but I'm not sure how it fits in here. Did I miss something? It seems like an arbitrary name for the episode.

5/10