Bernardine

This is a little movie that is very seldom seen, but is a joy to watch for both the piece of nostalgia it represents and for the many fine character actors and actresses that went on to other things, or had already done fine motion picture work....the plot is quite trivial involving typical (for that time) teen-age schananigans, and great pop music of the era, featuring Pat Boone singing the title tune, "Love Letters in the Sand," "Technique," etc.... There are many fine older character actors such as Janet Gaynor, Dean Jagger, Walter Abel, and younger lesser know ones of the time including James Drury (who went on to become the "Virginian") Richard Sargeant (Bewitched), and Ronnie Burns (the son of George Burns, who was currently on the Burns and Allen show)...The plot is thin, but just sit back and enjoy it for what it is....

First of all, whoever wrote the imdb storyline did never watch this movie. Maybe that would have been a better plot but certainly that's not what this movie is about. The story of five silly, good-for-nothing unsympathetic schoolmates who have an ideal girl named Bernardine does not really allow for high expectations. Not even one of them being singer Pat Boone nor including some of his hits "Bernardine" and "Love letters" does much help the film. In fact, one of his songs (Johnny Mercer Technique about the way to proceed with girls) is so male chauvinist that it is hard to believe it was sung by the same man who wanted to change Ain't that a shame title and lyrics due to its content! The story is based on a stage play (I wonder how could anyone want to adapt such silly and unconsistent play into a movie after watching it on theatres!) and has no point of interest. If trying to make a becoming of age story it fails completely. Bernardine matter is never developed into some consistent plot, characters are silly or dumb or both and they are hard to stand. Girls are dumb or just nobodies. Even main character's mother (Janet Gaynor) is rather silly and is a poor written role to end her movie career. One wanders what made good actors like her, Dean Jagger and Walter Abel accept such poorly scripted roles. We see these five boys having fun doing nothing but bullying a classmate, racing boats (why did the producers not use more of boat races matter is a mystery) and spending their lives in a rather stupid and irritating way. They are not likeable to the audience and subsequently movie has a total lack of interest. Their supposed fiancees never appear (Pat Boone sings his songs miserably set in their club alone or with his pals!) and Pat's character is not very sympathetic either so the only thing this movie has are some nice songs (even Technique tune is nice if only had different lyrics) and some nice actors in poor minor roles. Doubt a higher budget would have helped such a flop. Pat Boone fans would have to wait until April love to watch him in bloom.

I think it was 1957, or maybe 1958 (too far back to remember) I had the pleasure of watching the movie Bernadine, I can say – I WAS IN LOVE (I was 12 years old at that time), I have since followed Pat's music 'religiously…'

and have many of his original records at home until today.

In recent years, I went back to my old hobby of building radio controlled model airplanes and boats, the last boat I made, I named BERNADINE, as a thank you to all the years of pleasure I have had from his singing, please say thank you to Pat for me.

If there is a way, I would like to email him the photo of this boat

Keep smiling

Alex Evans, Melbourne - Australia

The first time I saw this movie was 1999 on tv and I thought it was pretty good. I was 13 at the time and I didn't really like old movies (like this one) but this was was different. Pat Boone's character reminded me of an early Ferris Bueller or Zack Morris. He didn't really care about his grades, he was really popular and really cute. The story is about a group of friends that think there is one perfect girl out there named Bernardine. One of the friends finds his own Bernardine and the guys try to get those two together. Their plans flop and a whole bunch of things go wrong. But in the end everything is okay.

He is so handsome and adorable on his parents' TV show now running on Antenna TV, that I'd really like to see this movie. He mentions this picture in the episode entitled Ronnie Gets A Movie Role and it lead me to this site to see what I could learn about it. Ronnie is so affable and good-natured, I was sorry to learn that he passed away in 2007. But I can still see his movie Bernadine, which is based on a successful stage play by Mary Chase. The guy in the NY Times liked it a lot, stating "The original cutting edge of "Bernardine" is gone, but on the whole, you still couldn't find a nicer bunch of people." I can't wait to see it, and when I do I'll revise this review and post my actual opinion.