BRAD NEWS

My pal Barry emailed me from Scotland to reprove me for failing to note on this blog the passing of a favorite of ours, actor Bradford Dillman, this past January. "You may have to consider seppuku," wrote Barry.

I had indeed not heard the sad news that Dillman, whose career ranged from O'Neill on Broadway to O'Neill in the movies to one of the Leopold-and-Loeb-ish creeps in Compulsion to supporting roles in a couple of Dirty Harry flicks to the mad scientist in the 1975 shocker Bug to the title character in 1961's Francis of Assisi, had passed on, at 87. But I pointed out to Barry that having to soldier on in a Dillman-less world was a greater punishment for me than seppuku.

I should also note that when I was in my early teens, I once started babbling on about how great Bradford Dillman was in front of my older brother, who mocked me by asking repeatedly if I was talking about Bradford Dillman, Bradford Dillman, Jr., Bradford Dillman III etc ad nauseam. The very name "Bradford Dillman" became a running gag with my brother for years.

Anyway...

Monster-of-the-Week: ...in light of the news, this week's honoree can only be...

...Dillman's werewolf in the 1972 TV-movie classic Moon of the Wolf (based on a genuinely good novel by the neglected Leslie H. Whitten). The movie can, and should, be enjoyed in its entirety here.