The Wicker Man movie storyline. Sergeant Neil Howie arrives on a Scottish island looking for a missing teenager girl, Rowan Morrison. The place belongs to Lord Summerisle and is famous because of their plantation of apples and other fruits and their harvest. Sgt. Howie realizes that the locals are pagans, practicing old rituals, and Rowan is probably alive and being prepared to be sacrificed. The end of the story is a tragic surprise.
The Wicker Man is a 1973 British folk horror film directed by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee. The screenplay is by Anthony Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner’s 1967 novel Ritual, and Paul Giovanni composed the film score.
The film was produced at a time of crisis for the British film industry. The studio in charge of production, British Lion Films, was in financial trouble and was bought by wealthy businessman John Bentley. To convince the unions that he was not about to asset-strip the company, Bentley needed to get a film into production quickly.
This meant that The Wicker Man, a film set during spring, actually began filming in October 1972; artificial leaves and blossoms had to be glued to trees in many scenes. The production was kept on a small budget. Christopher Lee was extremely keen to get the film made; he and others worked on the production without pay. While filming took place, British Lion was bought by EMI Films.
The film was shot almost entirely in the small Scottish towns of Stranraer, Gatehouse of Fleet, Newton Stewart, Kirkcudbright, Anwoth and Creetown in Galloway, as well as Plockton in Ross-shire.[28] Some scenes were filmed in and around the Isle of Whithorn, where the owners of the castle, Elizabeth McAdam McLaughland and David Wheatley, plus several other local people, featured in various scenes.
Culzean Castle in Ayrshire and its grounds and Floors Castle in Roxburghshire were also used for the shooting. Some of the opening flying shots feature the Isle of Skye, including the pinnacles of The Storr and the Quiraing. The interior cave scenes were filmed inside Wookey Hole in Somerset. Hush Heath Estate in Staplehurst, Kent, makes a brief appearance in the film, doubling as Lord Summerisle’s orchard and gardens.[30] The climax of the film was shot at St Ninian’s Cave and on the clifftops at Burrow Head in Wigtownshire.
The amphibious aircraft that carries Sergeant Howie was a Thurston Teal, owned and flown in the aerial sequences by Christopher Murphy. According to Britt Ekland, some animals perished in the wicker man, whereas Robin Hardy said in an interview that great care was taken to ensure that the animals were in no danger of being hurt during this scene, and that they were not inside the wicker man when it was set on fire.
The Wicker Man (1973)
Directed by: Robin Hardy
Starring: Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, Christopher Lee, Lindsay Kemp, Aubrey Morris, Irene Sunters, Leslie Blackater, Russell Waters, Barbara Rafferty
Screenplay by: Anthony Shaffer
Production Design by: Peter Snell
Cinematography by: Harry Waxman
Film Editing by: Eric Boyd-Perkins
Costume Design by: Sue Yelland
Art Direction by: Seamus Flannery
Music by: Paul Giovanni
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: British Lion Films
Release Date: December 6, 1973
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