Edward Bernds
Encyclopedia
Edward Bernds was an American
screenwriter and director, born in Chicago, Illinois.
When talking pictures burst onto the scene in the late 1920s, Bernds and broadcast operators like him relocated to Hollywood to work as sound technicians in "the talkies." After a brief stint at United Artists
, Bernds quit and went to work at Columbia
, where he worked as sound man on many of Frank Capra
's '30s classics. He soon established himself as Columbia's best recording technician.
about the reassignment. Frank Capra
ran into Bernds one day, and made Bernds promise to talk with Cohn that evening. Cohn, although well aware of Bernds's prowess in the sound department, grudgingly granted Bernds's wish.
In 1945, Bernds became a screenwriter and director, first for the Three Stooges
short subjects. His first effort with the team was the lackluster A Bird in the Head
, which featuring an ailing Curly Howard
. The 41-year-old Howard had suffered a series of minor stroke
s prior to filming; as a result, his tired performances were marred by slurred speech and slower timing. Though Bernds was initially thrilled at being a director, he was horrified when he realized that Curly was in such bad shape (something Columbia short-subject head Jules White
failed to tell Bernds). Years later, Bernds discussed his trying experience during the filming of A Bird in the Head:
Realizing that Curly was no longer able to perform in the same capacity as before, Bernds devised ways to cover his illness. Curly could still be the star, but the action was shifted away from the ailing Stooge. In A Bird in the Head, the action focuses more on crazy Professor Panzer and Igor. This allowed Curly to maintain a healthy amount of screen time without being required to contribute much.
Bernds often commented that he and Jules White never really got along. As a result, Bernds feared that his directing days would be over as soon as they began if he released A Bird in the Head with a weak Curly as his first entry. Producer Hugh McCollum
reshuffled the release order, and the superior Micro-Phonies
was released first, securing Bernds's directing position. Bernds struggled through three additional films (The Three Troubledoers
, Monkey Businessmen
and Three Little Pirates
, with Curly in varying stages of decline) until the comedian suffered a debilitating stroke that ended his career. When Shemp Howard replaced his brother Curly as the third Stooge, it breathed new life into the Stooges' films, and allowed Bernds to add new flair and wit to the team's antics.
Columbia's short-subject department operated two units, one headed by Jules White, the other by Hugh McCollum. Edward Bernds worked for the McCollum unit, usually collaborating on scripts with Elwood Ullman
. Every Columbia series alternated between the White and McCollum units, allowing Bernds to direct the other Columbia comedians: Shemp Howard. Hugh Herbert
, Andy Clyde
, Gus Schilling
and Richard Lane, Joe Besser
, Curly Joe DeRita
, Vera Vague, Wally Vernon and Eddie Quillan
, Harry Von Zell
, and Billie Burke
, among others. Bernds also began directing the feature-length Blondie
comedies with Penny Singleton
and Arthur Lake
.
When the Columbia shorts department downsized in 1952, Hugh McCollum was fired and Bernds voluntarily resigned, out of loyalty to McCollum.
, an independently produced comedy-western co-starring veteran cowboy star George O'Brien and The Three Stooges. This led to an assignment at the Allied Artists studio, directing action features starring Stanley Clements
, which in turn led Bernds into Allied Artists' breadwinning series starring The Bowery Boys
. Bernds directed Leo Gorcey
, Huntz Hall
, and company as though he was still working with the Stooges; the Bernds efforts in the series have the most slapstick content.
Bernds has the distinction of receiving an Oscar nomination by mistake. In 1956 the Academy nominated him and co-writer Elwood Ullman for the screen story to High Society
. The Academy actually intended the nomination to be for the big-budget Frank Sinatra
-Bing Crosby
musical. Bernds and Ullman did make a film in 1955 called High Society — but theirs was a low-budget feature with The Bowery Boys
. Graciously and voluntarily, Bernds and Ullman withdrew their nomination, though it still stands in the record books.
Bernds graduated to dramatic features in the late 1950s, although he was reunited with the Three Stooges in the 1960s for their feature films, and the live-action portions of their TV cartoons. He and Ullman also collaborated on an Elvis Presley
feature for Allied Artists, Tickle Me
. His best-known work from this time period is arguably the 1959 horror film Return of the Fly
. Although Bernds had become a proficient all-around director, he confessed to enjoying his short-subject comedies more.
Bernds's autobiography is "Mr. Bernds Goes to Hollywood," published in 1999. It details the earlier stages of his career, before he was a director. Bernds's directorial career is chronicled in "The Columbia Comedy Shorts," first published in 1986; Bernds wrote the foreword and is quoted throughout.
Outliving most of his peers, Edward Bernds died peacefully on May 20, 2000, in Van Nuys, California.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
screenwriter and director, born in Chicago, Illinois.
Career
While in his junior year in Lake View High School, he and several friends formed a small radio clique and obtained amateur licenses. In the early 1920s there was considerable prestige for amateur operators to have commercial radio licenses, and Bernds was in a good position to get into broadcasting when he graduated in 1923, a year when radio stations began popping up all over Chicago. He found employment — at age 20 — as chief operator at Chicago's WENR.When talking pictures burst onto the scene in the late 1920s, Bernds and broadcast operators like him relocated to Hollywood to work as sound technicians in "the talkies." After a brief stint at United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
, Bernds quit and went to work at Columbia
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, where he worked as sound man on many of Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
's '30s classics. He soon established himself as Columbia's best recording technician.
Directing the Three Stooges
Bernds wanted to be a director, but could not work up the nerve to approach Columbia president Harry CohnHarry Cohn
Harry Cohn was the American president and production director of Columbia Pictures.-Career:Cohn was born to a working-class German-Jewish family in New York City. In later years, he appears to have disparaged his heritage...
about the reassignment. Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
ran into Bernds one day, and made Bernds promise to talk with Cohn that evening. Cohn, although well aware of Bernds's prowess in the sound department, grudgingly granted Bernds's wish.
In 1945, Bernds became a screenwriter and director, first for the Three Stooges
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...
short subjects. His first effort with the team was the lackluster A Bird in the Head
A Bird in the Head
A Bird in the Head is the 89th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...
, which featuring an ailing Curly Howard
Curly Howard
Jerome Lester "Jerry" Horwitz , better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and vaudevillian. He is best known as a member of the American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges, along with his older brothers Moe Howard and Shemp Howard, and actor Larry Fine...
. The 41-year-old Howard had suffered a series of minor stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
s prior to filming; as a result, his tired performances were marred by slurred speech and slower timing. Though Bernds was initially thrilled at being a director, he was horrified when he realized that Curly was in such bad shape (something Columbia short-subject head Jules White
Jules White
Jules White born Julius Weiss was a film director and producer best known for his short-subject comedies starring the Three Stooges.-Early years:...
failed to tell Bernds). Years later, Bernds discussed his trying experience during the filming of A Bird in the Head:
Realizing that Curly was no longer able to perform in the same capacity as before, Bernds devised ways to cover his illness. Curly could still be the star, but the action was shifted away from the ailing Stooge. In A Bird in the Head, the action focuses more on crazy Professor Panzer and Igor. This allowed Curly to maintain a healthy amount of screen time without being required to contribute much.
Hugh McCollum
Hugh McCollum was an American film producer best known for his credits on Three Stooges short subject comedies.-Career:...
reshuffled the release order, and the superior Micro-Phonies
Micro-Phonies
Micro-Phonies is the 87th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...
was released first, securing Bernds's directing position. Bernds struggled through three additional films (The Three Troubledoers
The Three Troubledoers
The Three Troubledoers is the 91st short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...
, Monkey Businessmen
Monkey Businessmen
Monkey Businessmen is the 92nd short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...
and Three Little Pirates
Three Little Pirates
Three Little Pirates is the 96th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...
, with Curly in varying stages of decline) until the comedian suffered a debilitating stroke that ended his career. When Shemp Howard replaced his brother Curly as the third Stooge, it breathed new life into the Stooges' films, and allowed Bernds to add new flair and wit to the team's antics.
Columbia's short-subject department operated two units, one headed by Jules White, the other by Hugh McCollum. Edward Bernds worked for the McCollum unit, usually collaborating on scripts with Elwood Ullman
Elwood Ullman
Elwood Ullman was an American film comedy writer most famous for his credits on The Three Stooges shorts and many other low-budget comedies.-Career:...
. Every Columbia series alternated between the White and McCollum units, allowing Bernds to direct the other Columbia comedians: Shemp Howard. Hugh Herbert
Hugh Herbert
Hugh Herbert was a motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville, and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches.-Career:...
, Andy Clyde
Andy Clyde
Andy Clyde was a Scottish movie and TV actor whose career spanned more than four decades. He broke into silent films in 1925 as a Mack Sennett comic...
, Gus Schilling
Gus Schilling
August "Gus" Schilling was an American film actor. A former burlesque comedian, the New York-born Schilling usually played nervous comic roles, often unbilled.-Career:...
and Richard Lane, Joe Besser
Joe Besser
Joe Besser was an American comedian, known for his impish humor and wimpy characters, and is now best remembered for his brief stint as a member of the Three Stooges in movie short subjects of 1957-59...
, Curly Joe DeRita
Curly Joe DeRita
Joe DeRita , born Joseph Wardell, was an American comedian who is best known as Curly-Joe DeRita, the "sixth" member of the Three Stooges.-Early life:...
, Vera Vague, Wally Vernon and Eddie Quillan
Eddie Quillan
Edward "Eddie" Quillan was an American film actor whose career began as a child on the vaudeville stages and silent film and continued through the age of television in the 1980s.-Vaudeville and silent films:...
, Harry Von Zell
Harry von Zell
Harry von Zell , born in Indianapolis, made his mark as an announcer of radio programs and an actor in films and television shows....
, and Billie Burke
Billie Burke
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live...
, among others. Bernds also began directing the feature-length Blondie
Blondie (film)
Blondie is a 1938 movie directed by Frank Strayer, based on the comic strip of the same name. The screenplay was written by Chic Young and Richard Flournoy....
comedies with Penny Singleton
Penny Singleton
Penny Singleton was an American film actress. Born Marianna Dorothy Agnes Letitia McNulty in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania she was the daughter of an Irish-American newspaperman Benny McNulty — from whom she received the nickname "Penny" because she was "as bright as a penny".During her sixty...
and Arthur Lake
Arthur Lake (actor)
Arthur Lake was an American actor known best for bringing Dagwood Bumstead, the bumbling husband of Blondie, to life in film, radio and television.-Early life and career:...
.
When the Columbia shorts department downsized in 1952, Hugh McCollum was fired and Bernds voluntarily resigned, out of loyalty to McCollum.
Later years
In 1950 Bernds directed Gold RaidersGold Raiders
Gold Raiders is a comedy Western film, directed by Edward Bernds with a script by B-movie writer William Lively and veteran comedy writer Elwood Ullman. The film was an attempt by independent producer Bernard Glasser to inaugurate a new western series starring George O'Brien, the lead in F. W....
, an independently produced comedy-western co-starring veteran cowboy star George O'Brien and The Three Stooges. This led to an assignment at the Allied Artists studio, directing action features starring Stanley Clements
Stanley Clements
Stanley Clements was an American actor and comedian.Stanley Clements was born Stanislaw Klimowicz in Long Island, New York. Young Stan realized that he wanted a show-business career while he was in grammar school, and when he graduated from college he toured in vaudeville for two years...
, which in turn led Bernds into Allied Artists' breadwinning series starring The Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys were fictional New York City characters who were the subject of feature films released by Monogram Pictures from 1946 through 1958....
. Bernds directed Leo Gorcey
Leo Gorcey
Leo Bernard Gorcey was an American stage and movie actor who became famous for portraying on film the leader of the group of young hooligans known variously as the Dead End Kids, The East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys. Always the most pugnacious member of the gangs he participated in, young Leo...
, Huntz Hall
Huntz Hall
Henry Richard "Huntz" Hall was an American radio, theatrical, and motion picture performer noted primarily for his roles in the "Dead End Kids" movies, such as Angels with Dirty Faces , which gave way to the "The Bowery Boys" movie franchise, a prolific and highly successful series of comedies in...
, and company as though he was still working with the Stooges; the Bernds efforts in the series have the most slapstick content.
Bernds has the distinction of receiving an Oscar nomination by mistake. In 1956 the Academy nominated him and co-writer Elwood Ullman for the screen story to High Society
High Society (1955 film)
High Society is a 1955 comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring the comedy team of The Bowery Boys. The film was released on April 17, 1955 by Allied Artists and is the thirty-seventh film in the series...
. The Academy actually intended the nomination to be for the big-budget Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
-Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
musical. Bernds and Ullman did make a film in 1955 called High Society — but theirs was a low-budget feature with The Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys
The Bowery Boys were fictional New York City characters who were the subject of feature films released by Monogram Pictures from 1946 through 1958....
. Graciously and voluntarily, Bernds and Ullman withdrew their nomination, though it still stands in the record books.
Bernds graduated to dramatic features in the late 1950s, although he was reunited with the Three Stooges in the 1960s for their feature films, and the live-action portions of their TV cartoons. He and Ullman also collaborated on an Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
feature for Allied Artists, Tickle Me
Tickle Me
Tickle Me is a 1965 Western musical comedy film starring Elvis Presley as a champion rodeo bull-rider and bronco-buster. Elvis Presley won a 1966 Golden Laurel Award as the best male actor in a musical film for his role in this comedy. It is also the only Elvis film released by Allied Artists...
. His best-known work from this time period is arguably the 1959 horror film Return of the Fly
Return of the Fly
Return of the Fly is the first sequel to the 1958 horror film The Fly. It was released in 1959, and directed by Edward Bernds. Unlike the preceding film, Return of the Fly was shot in black and white. The film was followed by another sequel in 1965, Curse of the Fly.-Plot:Phillipe Delambre is...
. Although Bernds had become a proficient all-around director, he confessed to enjoying his short-subject comedies more.
Bernds's autobiography is "Mr. Bernds Goes to Hollywood," published in 1999. It details the earlier stages of his career, before he was a director. Bernds's directorial career is chronicled in "The Columbia Comedy Shorts," first published in 1986; Bernds wrote the foreword and is quoted throughout.
Outliving most of his peers, Edward Bernds died peacefully on May 20, 2000, in Van Nuys, California.