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.

OIL BE SEEING YOU

Su-PRIZE, Su-PRIZE, Su-PRIZE! Gomer Pyle, USMC, himself, Jim Nabors has gotten married, at 82, to his partner of 38 years. Mazel tov.

Tomorrow is Phoenix First Friday art walk for February; this month’s festivities include a screening of Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange at Phoenix Art Museum. So...

Monster-of-the-Week: …let’s do a gallery-oriented ghoul, specifically the title character of H.P. Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model,” as realized in the ‘70s TV anthology series Night Gallery. Here’s how the eldritch sitter for haunted artist Pickman (Bradford Dillman) appeared in the Tom Wright painting that introduces the episode:

And here he is in the episode, played by costume designer Janos Prohaska, also known as the Horta and the Mugato on Star Trek, and the giant spider on Gilligan’s Island:

The show—one of the better Lovecraft adaptations available, believe it or not—may be viewed in its entirety, here.