ALTERNATIVE 007


The Wicker Man - Christopher Lee's Finest Hour? 



As far as British horror films go, none are more cultish and revered as 1973's The Wicker Man. The film is inspired by the David Pinner novel Ritual and is now regarded to be a classic. However, this wasn't always the case. The distributor initially refused to release The Wicker Man, even in Britain. The theatrical version was then cut down to 88 minutes with Christopher Lee calling it a 'shadow' of the film they'd made. Legend has it that the original negative of the full length version was used as landfill in the M3 motorway in England! Although restored in DVD editions in later decades, the full uncut version of the film has yet to emerge from whatever dusty vault it might be hiding.

The film's musical arranger, Gary Carpenter said: "I have a vivid memory of having to score a phenomenally complex dream sequence for Howie, which was like post-scoring an animation, it was so intricate. The fades and dissolves and extensive use of library footage for this sequence seriously dented the budget. Despite Robin Hardy's enthusiasm for it and its inclusion in what I assumed at the time to be 'The Director's Cut', I have never seen reference made to it again and it is in no existing version of the film." It's a shame that The Wicker Man was treated so shoddily on its initial release but the enduring legend and popularity of the film has at least given it a happy ending.

The story has Edward Woodwood as a repressed policeman named Sgt Howie sent to a remote Scottish island from the mainland to investigate a child's disappearance. He soon realises that everyone there is under the spell of the spooky island leader Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). Howie, a devout Christian, is shocked that the locals have turned to paganism and treat both his authority and his beliefs with a mocking indifference. He begins to suspect that the missing child might be earmarked for a sacrificial fertility ritual but the case proves to be more troubling than he'd ever suspected.

The Wicker Man is beautifully paced and reveals its secrets in a clever and often strange way with a genuinely authentic sense of location and atmosphere. The film was shot in Gatehouse of Fleet, Newton Stewart, Kirkcudbright and a few scenes in the village of Creetown in Dumfries and Galloway, as well as Plockton in Ross-shire. Britt Ekland had to apologise after calling Galloway the bleakest place on earth. Ekland doesn't seem to look back on the film fondly. "It was not an enjoyable experience at all. We shot it in south-west Scotland on a massive cliff with the sea pounding away below. Filming started in mid or late October and went on for about six weeks. It was very windy and cold but the film was supposed to be set in summer so we were not allowed any overcoats."

The film was shot near winter and fake plastic blossoms had to be put on the trees. The aerial photography was partly done in South Africa because Scotland in October had bare trees. The film is well directed by Robin Hardy and the script by Anthony Shaffer is clever and ambitious. Shaffer and Hardy became estranged after making The Wicker Man and Shaffer later said that Hardy was a terrible director - although this seems rather harsh given the quality of the film. Shaffer apparently felt that Edward Woodward and Britt Eklund were miscast. Scottish jazz singer Annie Ross dubbed Ekland's voice and Ekland only found out much later. "I knew my singing was not so fabulous but I thought my Scottish accent was pretty good. Again, nobody told me so there wasn't much I could say about it." Peter Cushing and Michael York were offered the role of Sgt Howie but both were unavailable.

Despite Shaffer's concerns, it's hard to think of Woodward's passionate and vulnerable performance as anything but an asset to the film. Woodward was pleased to be offered something that was not like the Callan role he was associated with at the time and he responds with a terrific performance in The Wicker Man. This might well too be Christopher Lee's finest hour in terms of acting. His Lord Summerisle is incredibly suave and patronising to Woodward's Howie, amused at the policeman's inability to grasp what is really happening and doubly amused at him for being an uptight Christian. "I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self-contained. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God. Not one of them kneels to another or to his own kind that lived thousands of years ago. Not one of them is respectable or unhappy, all over the earth."

This was Christopher Lee's favourite film out of the many he made and he saw The Wicker Man as a way to break out of his Dracula typecasting. Lee was furious that the film wasn't marketed very well and urged journalists to watch it. He found the subject matter of the film fascinating. "As a young man I was always fascinated by the occult," said Lee. "I’d read Frazer’s The Golden Bough, a great deal of which is about Celtic belief, sacrifice, superstition, and so on. So I was already very well versed in the subject matter." A horror film with a great understanding of atmosphere, The Wicker Man has a real sense of local colour and location, weirdness, and a twist ending which is quite shocking when you first watch the film. The folk music and pagan rituals that serve as a backdrop are at once both charming and foreboding - the line veering towards the downright creepy when characters resort to their costumes for the big festival at the end. The Wicker Man is a haunting and absorbing film that repays a few repeat viewings. There is nothing else quite like it.



I should probably mention that in 2011 there was a very ill advised follow up film to The Wicker Man that, unlike the original, is fully deserving of M3 landfill. The Wicker Tree was directed by Robin Hardy and was based on his novel Cowboys For Christ. This is basically a sequel to Robin Hardy's 1973 classic The Wicker Man although it was described by Hardy as more of a companion piece. The Wicker Man is one of the greatest horror films ever made while The Wicker Tree is one of the worst horror films ever made. It's true what they say. You can never go home again and Robin Hardy should have deduced that for himself before embarking on this fiasco. This wretched sequel is an amateurish waste of everyone's time. The ludicrous story has two young American Christians named Steve (Henry Garrett) and Beth Boothby (Britannia Nicol) sent to 'heathen' Scotland to teach them about God. They end up being invited to a village by Sir Lachlan Morrison (Graham McTavish) and, well, if you've seen the original film, you'll have a good idea of what eventually happens.

The two leads in The Wicker Tree can't act to save their lives and the film plays like cheap student film shot with a camcorder. Henry Garrett, who plays Steve, is actually English in real life. I have no idea who Britannia Nicol is when she's at home. The Wicker Tree is her only acting credit. It is certainly a bit of a drop in quality (to say the least) to go from Edward Woodward to Britannia Nicol as your lead actor. Most of the actors here seem embarrassed and aware that they've ended up in a real stinker. Christopher Lee was going to be the lead of the film but had to pull out because of illness. Lucky for him really. He has a cameo instead with the lead villain role going to Graham McTavish. McTavish is always reliable but he isn't in the film enough. I gather that Joan Collins was going to be in the film alongside Christopher Lee but when he pulled out they replaced Joan with the younger Jacqueline Leonard (as Delia Morrison).

Nothing in this terrible film makes much sense and it's little wonder that it didn't find a theatrical release. The notion that Scotland is some primitive backwater is preposterous for a film made in 2011. The pagan cult mumbo jumbo just seems tiresome and silly here. In the original film it was fascinating, mysterious, entrancing, and scary. Former child actor and Foyle's War star Honeysuckle Weeks is cast in the film as Lolly - a villager who is irresistible to men apparently. I suppose you could say she's sort of pitched loosely as the Britt Ekland of this film. The Wicker Tree's determination to have Honeysuckle Weeks nude as often as possible becomes downright weird in the end. Lolly goes skinny dipping in a river at one point despite the fact it looks flaming freezing. That poor girl is going to end up with hypothermia. 

There are a smattering of familiar faces in the film. Clive Russell (who was, among other things, Brynden 'Blackfish' Tully in Game of Thrones) pops up in a comic role as the butler. It feels like the actors here liked the idea of being in a new Wicker Man film with Christopher Lee but then ended up in something which they probably would have avoided had they known how bad it was going to be. There is a bit of gore in The Wicker Tree but it isn't ever scary or unsettling like the first film. The last act tries to subvert some of the expectations you might have from your knowledge of The Wicker Man but you'll probably be past caring by then. The cult group in this film worship the deity Sulis but you'll be so bored they might as well be worshipping Basil Brush. In fact, that probably would have been more entertaining.

What this film illustrates perfectly is how the original Wicker Man was lightning in a bottle. You just can't replicate the wonderfully strange and chilling nature of that brilliant 'folk horror' film. Robin Hardy (who hardly made any films in between these two Wicker Man pictures) should really have left The Wicker Man to stand alone as an undoubted classic of British cinema. If you do love the original it is best to pretend that The Wicker Tree doesn't exist.

- Jake


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