The Wicker Man

As those of you who regularly read my blog will know, I am something of a film connoisseur. Over the years I have watched hundreds of films, and collected quite a few of them both on both Video and DVD.

One of the films which caught my attention very soon after it was released was a film called "The Wicker Man." The film was made in 1973 and was intended as a top line feature, but due not in the least to a reshuffle of the upper echelon at British Lion films, it ended up ignominiously as a B rated movie, and a very poorly distributed one at that!  Peter Snell, the studio's managing director was the greatest supporter of the film, but he was replaced by Michael Deeley who was preparing for British Lion to be absorbed by EMI. 

Deeley decided the finished product was execrable, and after some drastic cutting (in the cutting room) it was paired with "Don't Look Now" and sent out to the provinces as one half of a double bill.  Most people would have been happy at this point to write the film off, but Robin Hardy, the director was reluctant to let the film end it's life so badly. He had spent a great deal of time researching the legends and pagan lore, and eventually had the opportunity to put his learning to good use. A pair of New Orleans based cineastes had decided to try to restore the film to the version which Hardy had made. (The original running time had been 102 minutes, but after it being released as half of a double bill it had been reduced to a running time of 87 minutes.) The New Orleans pair secured a high profile release on the West Coast of America for their restored version, and Hardy was well into the process of releasing a novel based on Anthony Schaffer's script. The novel filled out the 102 minutes story which featured in the film.

In 1979 it won the Saturn Award for best horror film.

 

The film tells the story of a very straight laced policeman, Sergeant Neil Howie, who is based in the Scottish Highlands, and receives a strange letter telling him that a young girl has been missing from Summerisle for some months.

The place belongs to Lord Summerisle and is famous because of the plantation of apples and other fruits and their harvest. Sgt. Howie realises that the locals are pagans, practising old rituals, and Rowan (the missing girl) is probably alive and being prepared to be sacrificed.

Without giving too much away Sgt. Howie finds he is up to his ears in religious sexuality and pagan murder.

The end of the story is a shocking and tragic surprise.

Starring as Sgt. Howie is Edward Woodward, with Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle.

It is peculiar how totally unrelated events and places become connected over the years. Let me give you some examples in relation to the filming locations of The Wicker Man.

In 1999 I took a party of church members to Dumfries and Galloway. In particular we were tracing the life of Saint Ninian. Among the places we visited was St Ninian's Cave at Physgill in Luce Bay. I later discovered that the beach and cave scenes in the Wicker Man were filmed in this same spot.

In 2002 we took an extended holiday by travelling up to the Isle if Skye, crossing to the outer Hebrides, then back on to the mainland, before travelling all along the West Coast of Scotland to the far North at Durness. When we returned to the mainland, one of the places we stayed at overnight was a little village called Duirinsh, which is very close to the village of Plockton. I later discovered that Plockton was another of the filming locations for the Wicker Man, doubling for Summerisle itself in the film.

On another occasion, after spending some time on the Isle of Arran, we travelled southwards down the coast and visited Culzean Castle.

 

 

In November 1945 General Dwight D Eisenhower was invited by the 5th Marquess and the Kennedy family to accept the tenancy of a specially created guest flat on the top floor of the Castle for his lifetime, as a gesture of Scottish thanks for America's support during World War II.

 

 

General Eisenhower and members of his family stayed here on several occasions and he also lent it to friends.

Culzean Castle was used as the Lord Summerisle's Mansion in the film The Wicker Man.

You may by now, be wondering, why the sudden burst of blogging about the film "The Wicker Man"?

Well, yesterday I was in Saltaire, waiting for Dot & Mollie and I called into the Help the Aged Charity Shop, and on the shelf in there I found the novel "The Wicker Man" which was written by Robin Hardy (the director of the film) and Anthony Schaffer (the writer of the screenplay of the film.) I am about half way through reading the novel, which greatly expands the character of Sgt. Neil Howie and gives a lot more background to the events portrayed in the film.

If you want to find out the full saga of the in fighting in British Lion and EMI and how the original film became drastically cut, then read "Inside the Wicker Man" by Allan Brown.

As you can probably tell I did a fair bit of research on this fascinating film. The surprise ending can be somewhat unsettling, but it really is well worth  watching it.

Remember, if you decide to purchase a copy of the film try and get hold of the uncut 102 minute version, which is available. Beware! - there are 87 minute and 95 minute versions of the film around!

There was also a 2006 remake, but this is not a patch on the original!