Bernice Bobs Her Hair (1976)

An awkward young girl by the name of Bernice (Shelley Duvall) visits her popular cousin (Veronica Cartwright) for the summer but she doesn't seem to fit into the social group of her cousin's friends. Her cousin then undertakes to makeover Bernice so that she will become more socially acceptable but when Bernice's popularity rivals hers, she realizes she may have gone too far. Based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and directed by Joan Micklin Silver (HESTER STREET). Fitzgerald's slight "the worm turns" tale gets a faithful rendering in Micklin's hands (she also adapted the story into a screenplay). Duvall, perfectly cast, gives the gawky Bernice just the right balance of guilelessness and naivete while Cartwright as her cousin plays the conniving cat expertly. It's a pleasing piffle of a story really but popular enough to have been turned into a play and a musical. With Dennis Christopher and Polly Holliday.