Dan, I think all of Bernhard's films are clearly "B's," and the quote from Eddie indicates his preference for DECOY and THE HUNTED without providing any additional opinion/analysis or useful biographical info. (There's even less in the second edition, only an approving mention of Bernhard's direction of THE HUNTED without any reference to the other three films we're referencing.) BLONDE ICE was one of just two films produced by Martin Mooney Productions (Mooney was previously involved with PRC, but got the boot when Eagle-Lion came in and bought their facilities) and there are strong whispers that Edgar Ulmer was involved in the script. Plus it has George Robinson of the Universal "B" horror unit behind the camera.

BLONDE ICE really should be screened in conjunction with SHAKEDOWN.

VIOLENCE's genesis at Monogram links Bernhard back to his father, Jeffrey Bernerd, a British producer (Stoll Pictures; some sources claim he was also associated with British Gaumont) who relocated to Hollywood in 1940 and wound up with a production unit at Monogram (teaming with Kay Francis on her troika of noir-exploitation quickies in 1944-46). The connective tissue between father and son is tenuous and hard to trace, since they apparently did not work together at all. Jeffrey Bernerd died in 1950 and his son never made another movie--another mysterious oddity that has yet to be clarified. There are references to Bernhard directing plays at the Pasadena Playhouse in the mid-1950s, but the trail goes cold at that point, and the last forty years of his life remain a mystery...