Biography
Though little is written of director Bernard Girard's career before the making of
Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966), Girard had been in Hollywood since the early 1950s, first as a screenwriter (among his credits was the 1952
Joan Crawford vehicle
This Woman is Dangerous) then as a TV producer/director. His true feature-film bow was 1957's
Ride Out For Revenge, followed by the bleak juvenile delinquent flick
The Party Crashers (1958): the latter film represented the cinematic swan songs of two of Hollywood's most tragic personalities,
Frances Farmer and
Bobby Driscoll. One of Girard's better pre-
Dead Heat projects was
A Public Affair (1962), a terse, low-budget indictment of big-city political corruption. After Dead Heat, Bernard Girard's screen credits dwindled, coming to an abrupt halt in 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide