David Shedd Bradley (6 April 1920 in Winnetka, Illinois – 19 December 1997 in Los Angeles, California) was an American motion picture director, actor, film collector, and university instructor. He is known for the films 12 to the Moon and They Saved Hitler's Brain (an edited version of Madman of Mandoras and listed as one of the worst films of all time).[1][2]
Biography
editDavid Shedd Bradley was a grandson of Charles Banks Shedd, a prominent Chicago real estate investor, banker, and financier, and civic leader who also served as an executive officer of the Knickerbocker Ice Company of Chicago, which had been founded principally by Edward Avery Shedd, younger brother of Charles Banks Shedd. He attended the Todd School for Boys (from which Orson Welles had graduated in 1931) from 1935 to 1937, and Lake Forest Academy during 1937–1940. He then spent a year at the Goodman Memorial Theatre Drama Department of the Art Institute of Chicago. During this time, he also directed a feature-length 16 mm version of Peer Gynt with 17-year-old Charlton Heston in the title role; Bradley having known Heston since high school.
His studies at Northwestern University were interrupted by three years’ service in the U.S. Army Signal Corps motion picture section during World War II. He worked as a combat photographer during the European campaign, eventually filming the arrival of the Allies in Paris.[3]
He graduated in 1950 with Bachelor of Science degree from the university's School of Speech. On the basis of the 16 mm feature Julius Caesar that he had produced and directed in Chicago[4] (and which also starred Charlton Heston),[5] he was hired as a directing intern by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1950.
Later years
editAfter the teen drama Dragstrip Riot (1958), he went on to direct Madmen of Mandoras, padded for television into the infamous They Saved Hitler's Brain,[6][7] which proved to be his final output.
Bradley later taught film studies at UCLA and Santa Monica City College.
Filmography
edit- Treasure Island (English language version of 1938 film also known as Ostrov sokrovishch)
- 'Sredni Vashtar' by Saki (1940 short)
- Peer Gynt (1941, also writer)
- Julius Caesar (1950, also produced and wrote script)
- Talk About a Stranger (1952)
- Dragstrip Riot (1958)
- 12 to the Moon (1960)-riffed by satirical cult sci-fi series Mystery Science Theater 3000
- Madmen of Mandoras (1963, rereleased in 1968 with additional footage under the title They Saved Hitler's Brain)
References
edit- ^ "They Saved Hitler's Brain". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
- ^ Peary, Danny (1986). Guide for the Film Fanatic. Simon & Schuster. p. 430. ISBN 0671610813.
- ^ DAVID BRADLEY, DIRECTOR, FILM TEACHER - Chicago Tribune
- ^ Crowl, Samuel (November 25, 1994). "A World Elsewhere: The Roman Plays on Film and Television". In Davies, Anthony; Wells, Stanley (eds.). Shakespeare and the Moving Image: The Plays on Film and Television. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 147. ISBN 0-521-43424-6. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
- ^ Brode, Douglas (April 27, 2000). Shakespeare in the Movies: From the Silent Era to Shakespeare in Love. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 102. ISBN 0-199-72802-X. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
- ^ They Saved Hitler's Brain (1964) - TCM.com
- ^ Slide, Anthony (2018). Magnificent Obsession: The Outrageous History of Film Buffs, Collectors, Scholars, and Fanatics. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1496810533.
External links
edit- David Bradley at IMDb
- David Bradley Papers[permanent dead link], Northwestern University Archives.
- David S. Bradley Film Collection Archived 2015-01-18 at the Wayback Machine, Indiana University.