Original Shooting Script for the Television Movie Murder or Mercy, Originally Titled The Champions: A Matter of Life and Death, Starring Bradford Dillman, from Dillman’s Library
1974 · Los Angeles
by STEWART, DOUGLAS DAY & BRADFORD DILLMAN
Los Angeles: Quinn Martin Productions / ABC, 1974. Original revised final shooting script with color rewrite pages for the television movie Movie Murder or Mercy, originally titled The Champions: A Matter of Life and Death, starring Bradford Dillman as attorney Sam Champion, alongside Melvyn Douglas, Denver Pyle, Mildred Dunnock, David Birney, and Bonnie Bartlett. This was Dillman’s working script with his extensive notations throughout and with 2 pages of his handwritten character and scene notes. With Dillman’s estate stamp which reads, “From the Library of Bradford Dillman”. Laid in is a 2 page crew list. Bradbound, 89 pages, dated February 5, 1974, with an air date of April 10, 1974. Near fine copy with some minor handling. The movie was intended to introduce a new series called The Champions, but was not picked up as such, and tells the story of the an attorney (Dillman) who comes out of retirement to defend a prominent doctor (Douglas) who has been accused of the mercy killing of his wife (Dunnock). Bradford Dillman (1930-2018) was one of Hollywood’s best regarded actors among his peers and the public. He was trained at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg and knew James Dean in early television. Dillman rose to sudden fame with his appearance in Richard Fleisher’s film Compulsion (1959) with Dean Stockwell and Orson Welles, and continued in movies throughout his career in such films as The Way We Were, The Iceman Cometh, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, Crack in the Mirror, Escape From the Planet of the Apes, Francis of Assisi, Piranha, The Swarm, etc. A great success in television, Dillman appeared in a remarkable number of shows and made for TV movies in a variety of genres, including, Mission Impossible, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Columbo, Wagon Train, Ironside, Dynasty, The Wild Wild West, Thriller, Wonder Woman, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, and many others. (Inventory #: 22031E)