The 1973 British movie The Wicker Man was once dubbed by Cinefantastique “The Citizen Kane of horror movies”. The influential horror, fantasy and science fiction magazine bestowed the lofty title on the horror flick not, one should emphasize, because of the movie’s quality, but rather because of the endless cuts it suffered upon release and the tortuous process of its complete restoration.
Just how good this movie is (or is not) moviegoers can judge for themselves this Friday, November 1st, when a fully restored print of The Wicker Man opens (for one week only) at the Nuart on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Los Angeles. British director Robin Hardy’s 92-minute tale has become something of a cult classic, and starsr Edward Woodward as a straight-laced Scottish cop investigating the disappearance of a young woman on a remote Scottish island and who ultimately becomes the quarry, rather than the hunter. The movie also stars a delightfully arch Christopher Lee as the local laird, Lord Summerisle, Hammer Horror vixen supreme Ingrid Pitt and Britt Ekland in peak sex kitten form.
We first meet Sergeant Howie (Woodward), piloting a seaplane across some gorgeous Scottish seascapes en route to the isolated community of Summerisle after receiving an anonymous letter about a missing local girl, Rowan Morrison. He immediate encounters hostility and suspicion from the locals, who with their gnarled features, leering eyes and scraggly beards, look straight out of central casting for creepy seaside locals, more Straw Dogs than straw men.
Hints of the islanders’ devotion to pagan practices are everywhere: from the evil-eye motif on the harbour master’s dinghy which fetches Howie to shore, to the ubiquitous corn dollies and sun symbols throughout the village. And while Howie’s every question about the missing girl is met with an evasion or an answer freighted with double meanings, the villagers are far more forthcoming with their attitude to sex, from bawdy songs greeting him in the local pub to the sight of multiple coupling locals affronting him on a walk before bedtime.
The key to the girl’s disappearance seems to lie with Lord Summerisle, who gleefully explains to Howie that the islanders have all been joyful pagans since one of his ancestors summoned up the power of the old Gods to turn the island into a fertile isle bursting with fruits, vegetables and grain back in the 19th century, thereby banishing the locals’ centuries-long struggle against famine. Howie’s shock and discomfort grow with the approach of the island’s annual May Day bacchanal, in which finally gets to the bottom of the mystery…and a lot more besides.
According to the press materials the film was ‘butchered’ by its original UK distributor to fit on double bills, with its original camera negative apparently lost. Nonetheless, the film gathered a devoted fan base over the past four decades, with the complete version becoming something of a Holy Grail. Some missing scenes were recovered from an obsolete one-inch broadcast tape, but over the years there were rumors of complete 35mm prints floating around.
Earlier this year, the search intensified when worldwide rights holder Studiocanal initiated a Facebook campaign to recover the missing 35mm material, resulting in the discovery of a 92-minute 35mm release print at the Harvard Film Archive. This print was scanned and sent to London, where it was recently inspected by director Robin Hardy, who confirmed that it was the same cut he had put together for its American distributor in 1979. This culminated in a digital restoration of the complete U.S. theatrical version, which director Hardy recently anointed as “the final cut.” Hardy, now 83, has said of this restored version, “It fulfills my vision.”
The Wicker Man is very much a film of its time, and having seen the original theatrical version back in my younger days it undeniably benefits from this fresh new print. The music, which is mainly comprised of old English bawdy tunes and odes to corn and harvest, certainly fits the setting, but the sound is often oddly edited and does not fit organically into the plot. Two interludes in particular – one featuring a naked Britt Ekland imploring Howie to come and bed her and the other showcasing a circle of naked local girls leaping over a fire in a bizarre fertility ritual – strike the viewer as more like music videos, interrupting the movie’s narrative flow and reminding us that this film is more of an jarring oddity than a harmoniously structured whole. It’s worth seeing, but don’t expect a classic.
THIS JUST IN: Actress Britt Ekland will appear in person on Friday, Nov 1, to introduce and do Q&A for the 7:30pm show of The Wicker Man. Swedish beauty Ekland is also well known as the Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun. Other notable film appearances include The Night They Raided Minsky’s, Baxter!, The Double Man, Get Carter, and films with Peter Sellers, her husband from 1964-1968. In 1975 she provided “whispers” in French on the end of then-boyfriend Rod Stewart’s Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright).
The Wicker Man, The Final Cut starring Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Ingrid Pitt and Britt Ekland. 92 minutes. Not rated. Showing Friday, November 1 through Thursday, November 7, 2013 for an exclusive one-week engagement. Showtimes are Fri-Mon at 12:30, 2:50, 5:10, 7:30, 9:50; Tues-Thu at 5:10, 7:30, 9:50. Landmark’s Nuart Theatre is at 11272 Santa Monica Boulevard, just west of the 405 Freeway, at the Nuart Theatre. www.landmarktheatres.com
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