Bradford Dillman Movies

Season Ten of Murder, She Wrote concludes as a small-time carnival pitches its tents just outside Cabot Cove. The troupe's arrival coincides with a series of mysterious burglaries which plagued the town. Then, the carnival's larcenous magician Carl Dorner (Bradford Dillman) is murdered--and that's when Jessica (Angela Lansbury) stars performing a bit of verbal prestidigitation in order to figure out which of Dorner's many enemies perpetrated the deed. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Cabot Cove has been chosen as the location for the pre-Broadway staging of a new play starring David North (Peter Donat), a prominent actor who is emerging from a 10-year retirement. No sooner have rehearsals started than a murder occurs, with North's business manager Eric Benderson (Bradford Dillman) as the victim. Needless to say, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is determined to find out "who done it"--and this time, there are plenty of subtle pop-cultural clues at hand, thanks to the cunning of screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jessica (Angela Lansbury) agrees to finish a book that was inaugurated by recently deceased Pulitzer-winning journalist Daniel Hannigan (Van Johnson). The book was intended to reopen a 16-year-old murder case, and to prove that the man convicted of murdering one Lydia Thurlow was really innocent. Following the trail of clues left behind by Hannigan, Jessica comes across a full complement of suspects, among them Lydia's brother and sister-in-law (Raphael Sbrage, Cynthia Harris), and the police commissioner (Bradford Dillman) originally assigned to the case. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After they're framed for murder, a young couple must outrun the police--and a one-eyed hit man--in order to find the real killers. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

In this drama, legal eagle Cromwell must protect her client who has been wrongly accused of killing a grifter. She is up against a crafty, and earnest police officer. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

No sooner has Jessica (Angela Lansbury) shipped her latest book to the publisher than someone plagiarizes its plotline for an episode of a TV crime series. Arriving in Hollywood to track down the culprit, Jessica crosses the path of an unscrupulous producer who specializes in stealing other people's ideas. Naturally, such a fellow would have accumulated an inordinately large list of enemies--one of whom manages to kill the producer with a live bomb during a staged special-effects sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The setting is New Orleans, where a prominent jazz musician is killed onstage in full view of a nightclub audience. It turns out that the victim was done in by a rare South American poison. So what does all this have to do with Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury? Well, it seems that a similar murder with the same weapon occurred in one of Jessica's mystery novels--a most embarrassing turn of events, especially since Jessica was in the audience at the time of the real murder! B-picture icons Robert Clarke and Jackie Joseph show up in supporting roles in this episode, which also boasts an unusually strong (for 1985!) cast of prominent African American actors. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this horror film an influential family, whose wealth comes from Nazi gold, in San Francisco must preserve an ancient evil rite that enables them to keep a supernatural power under their control. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this fourth installment of the Dirty Harry series, Harry has been banished temporarily from San Francisco because his superiors are uncomfortable about his feud with a local crime boss. He goes to an oceanside small town for a little rest and recuperation but finds the town has been traumatized by a series of brutal murders. Harry meets and falls in love with Jennifer Spencer (Sandra Locke), a young artist. Jennifer and her sister were brutally raped a few years previously by a group of men, leaving her sister catatonic and Jennifer filled with a rage that is expressed in her disturbing artworks. Harry investigates the killings and the rapes, and one by one he dispatches Jennifer's rapists, one of whom is the son of the local police chief (which explains why the police have done little investigating). Finally, Harry finds out that Jennifer also dispenses her own brand of justice because she cannot rely on the criminal justice system. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

A playwright is forced to move his family to his wife's hometown in California in order to accept her inheritance due to worsening finances. ~ Rovi

In this martial arts film, a twisted cult lead by the evil Reverend Rhee (Bong Soo Han) has kidnapped a young girl, and it is up to renegade Jerry Martin (Joe Lewis) and his friends to rescue her before it is too late. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

"Names have been changed to protect the innocent" in this infamous fictionalization of the tragic mass suicide of 914 followers of Jim Jones' "People's Temple" in Guyana in the fall of 1978. Rev. James Johnson (Stuart Whitman) is a charismatic but deeply paranoid man of the cloth who moves his flock from Northern California to a settlement in Guyana, where he intends to create an interracial socialist utopia. Addicted to prescription drugs and convinced he is surrounded by enemies, Johnson rules his colony, "Johnsontown," with an iron fist, torturing anyone who violates his rule, seducing both women and men from his congregation, confiscating money and property from his followers, and forcing them to work long hours in the fields for meager rations. Lee O'Brien (Gene Barry), a California congressman who represents the district Johnson and his followers once called home, has received complaints from friends and relatives of the Johnsontown settlers, convinced something is wrong. O'Brien and a team of reporters fly to Guyana to find out the truth about what is happening; Johnson is convinced O'Brien has seen too much, and armed gunmen ambush his party before they can return to the United States (with a number of Johnsontown residents who wish to leave). After a failed attempt to arrange exile in the Soviet Union, Johnson convinced his followers to perform a "final revolutionary act" before authorities arrive. This oddball blend of fact and fiction also features Joseph Cotten and John Ireland as Johnson's lawyers, Yvonne de Carlo as Johnsontown's press officer, and Bradford Dillman as the doctor who mixes the punch for Johnson's final gathering. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi