News on Screen

Carl Bernard was a commentator for Movietone, whose first credit is for British Movietone News No.422 in July 1937. Bernard specialised in comic London dialect items, and produced more than thirty of them for Movietone, including ''OLIDAYS: ‘Oo’s complaining if the blinking banks ain’t always open,' in No.426A of August 1937, and ‘THANKSGIVING: U.S. ‘arvesters ain’t ‘alf got somefink to say grace for’ in No.436A of October 1937. Bernard may indeed have been a replacement for Barry Barnes [qv], who had previously provided dialect items for Movietone. Bernard’s last surviving commentator credit appeared in No.455A from February 1938, but in November 1938 he appeared in the report of ‘THE LORD MAYOR HIS SHOW’ in British Movietone News No.492A, the story card noting that ‘Carl Bernard and Frank Chisnell [qv] butt in frequently from a window.'

Sources

NoS Number 7763; British Movietone News Number 422; Date released 5/7/1937: NoS Number 7861; British Movietone News Number 426A; Date released 5/8/1937.