The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure

They simply just don't make family adventure/mystery films like this anymore. I, like many other fans of Walt Disney's superior magic could only wish that a new generation of film makers could bring back Disney's magic but the only one who has come even close on a constant basis is film director/producer/writer Steven Spielberg with films such as Jaws (1975), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. (1982), Hook (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), and The BFG (2016).

The Hardy Boys adventures were good clean fun in the mid 1950's and they are still good clean fun some sixty (60) plus years later. The two stars of this mini TV mystery series are Tim Considine, and Tommy Kirk who play brothers Frank and Joe Hardy. The Hardy boys father is a real detective who the boys try and emulate with their wild imagination about some bury gold doubloons in their neighbors Mr Applegate's backyard somewhere.

The boys two friends are neighbor Iola Morton (Carole Ann Campbell) who is sweet on Joe Hardy and a troubled youth named Perry Robinson (Donald MacDonald) who seems to get blamed for a bunch of stolen property until the Hardy boys get involved and start their own little investigation and surreptitiously look for the gold doubloons, and the real thief.

Ahhh, to be a pre-teen once again and watch the Hardy Boys adventure for the very first time brings back so many good memories. Now that I own a copy of this hard to find DVD TV mini series my grandchildren will also get to enjoy the pure joy of the Hardy Boys adventures.

I give this IMDB title a solid 8 out of 10 IMDB rating.

Disney's 16-episode serial "The Hardy Boys": "The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure" (1956) is based on Franklin W. Dixon's (aka Edward Stratemeyer) "The Tower Treasure"- the first of many "Hardy Boys" books. It was the first of two "Hardy Boy" serials produced by Disney (originally broadcast during October 1956) for its "Mickey Mouse Club" show; which was broadcast from 5PM-6PM each weekday. The one-hour show was broken into four segments with this sort of serial taking up one of these 15-minute segments The "Spin and Marty" serials were also used for this purpose.

As in the books, Frank (Tim Considine) and Joe (Tommy Kirk) are the teenage sons of Fenton Hardy (Russ Conway), a private detective. Following in their father's footsteps the two boys are looking for a pirate's treasure supposedly hidden in the Applegate Mansion in their neighborhood. The series has a cool theme song (see below). Despite the song there are no pieces of eight. They were one ounce Spanish silver coins, worth 8 reales, or half of a gold dubloon.

Frank and Joe are assisted by Joe's girlfriend Iola (Carole Ann Campbell) and hindered by their Aunt Gertrude who is looking after them while their father is out of town.

The Applegate mansion is a spooky looking house and when the boys finally meet the owner he confirms that there really is a treasure, given to his grandfather by LaFitte the pirate as repayment for when he burned the Applegate plantation. His grandfather hid the treasure and no one has been able to find it since.

The story has gold doubloons and crooks, and Iola gets a lot of scream queen moments. "Applegate's Treasure" was my personal favorite of all the MMC serials. The only drawback is that it was a rather complex mystery with a lot of misdirection, and having to watch it in a cliffhanger serial format was extremely frustrating. No sooner had they cleared up the suspense from the last episode than something would happen and they would break off- telling you tune in for the next episode. But we were hooked and faithfully tuned in day after day. A lot of family plans were altered during this time so as to not interfere with daily viewing.

Watching it now I was pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the performances by the child actors; especially Campbell and Kirk. The serial is definitely several notches above "Spin & Marty" in what was demanded of the cast, and for the most part they come through.

The DVD has some nice special features including a 2006 interview with Considine and Kirk in the Disney Studio where the serial was filmed. Also included is the entire (hour-long) MMC episode in which it premiered. It was a Monday, which was "Fun With Music Day", and Darlene does a lengthy song and dance number with Bobby.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

"Gold dubloons and pieces of eight, handed down to Applegate? From buccaneers who fought for years for gold dubloons and pieces of eight. Handed down in a pirate chest, the gold they sailed for east and west. The treasure bright that made men fight, till none were left to bury the chest. So now the gold and pieces of eight all belong to Applegate. The chest is here but wait...now where are those gold dubloons and pieces of eight?"

This serial was still airing in reruns about a decade later. "Gold doubloons and pieces of eight / Handed down from Applegate / From buccaneers who fought for years / For gold doubloons and pieces of eight." At least part of that is right, I'm sure. Then there was, "Yo-ho-ho, the wind blows free / Oh, for a life on the roaring sea." The late Thurl Ravenscroft may have been one of the singing voices.

My personal memories of Disney in connection with adventure are primarily confined to comic books rather than television. At the time I saw this serial (when it and I both already were almost 10 years old), I was into Carl Barks's Uncle Scrooge comics, and sometimes the Mickey Mouse comics of the adventure-serial variety, where Mickey wore a red suit. I wouldn't mind seeing this story again to see how it compares against other Disney adventures I loved that were presented to me in another form.

Finally! After 30 some odd years, I finally got the chance to see The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure in its entirety. In the early 70s, one of the local UHF channels ran repeats of the Mickey Mouse Club from the 50s. Included was the daily serial The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure. For whatever reason, I never got to see the whole thing. So for over 30 years I was left wondering about the show and what happened and how the mystery was resolved. And for 30 years, I've had the theme song stuck in my head. I'm very happy Disney released this series.

So was it worth the wait? You betcha! While The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure may not have been as "spooky" as I remembered, it was a lot of fun reliving this moment of my childhood. The story is solid in that innocent, child-friendly, 50s sort of way. Remember, this is a serial designed for kids and made more than 50 years ago. The acting is actually quite good. While neither Tommy Kirk nor Tim Considine is what I would call a world-class actor, both give it their all and are a joy to watch. The supporting players are just as good (if not better in some cases) with Arthur Shields, Florenz Ames, and Carole Ann Campbell really shining. The sets are much better than I remembered. Sure, it's all stage-bound, but the Applegate Tower looked as good as I remembered. The direction is capable at a minimum with the usually dependable Charles Haas at the helm. Overall, it's a good show.

Disney has released The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure as part of their Walt Disney Treasures line. While I didn't really care about seeing the Mickey Mouse Club stuff or some of the other extras, the overall package is very nice. It makes for a very welcome addition to my DVD library.

My first exposure to the Hardy Boys came courtesy of this serial from the Mickey Mouse Club. It was after seeing this that I bought a load of the Hardy Boys kids novels to read. Those two certainly did have some adventuresome lives.

No doubt that later incarnations of the boys with Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy in the Seventies and later for Canadian television Paul Popowich and Colin K. Gray in the Nineties were good in their day, but Tommy Kirk and Tim Considine will be the quintessential Hardy Boys for this former devoted Mouskaviewer.

The film is based on the very first of the Franklin K. Dixon novels which came out in the Roaring Twenties, The Tower Treasure. The Disney Studio nicely updated the story to fit into the Fifties. The boys get wind of a secret treasure hidden in the dark secluded mansion of miser Applegate. Somebody's taking very seriously the legend that pirate gold is hidden there. And miser Applegate, played by Florenz Ames isn't a guy to ask for help.

In the books the Hardy Boys did have a living mother who was not a really memorable character, just your average good mom. Their father is Fenton Hardy, formerly of the NYPD and now a famous private detective. In this serial, he's played by Russ Conway.

But the show made Fenton a widower and had Sarah Selby as their constantly interfering Aunt Gertrude. She was in the books as well, but here she was the female of the house. Half the time Kirk and Considine were trying to outfox her to get to their sleuthing business. Selby was memorable I have to say.

However what you will remember best is that Treasure Island pirate theme song of the serial about 'gold doubloons and pieces of eight' that is guaranteed to rattle around in your brain for weeks upon hearing it.

The Disney channel used to run all these old shows, but around 2000 just surrendered and now run their new shows on the cable network. Hopefully stuff like this will see the light of day again.