Openings compared: The Final Cut and Theatrical versions vs the Director's Cut

Openings compared

From when the plane takes off:

Final Cut and Theatrical use the same opening sequence shot for shot.

All show the plane taking off from Plockton most likely but it’s hard to tell with some shots of the DC.

The music starts earlier in the DC.

Why did EB-P feel the need to cut the opening?

OK, credits in DC are in the opening shots. Otherwise the credits are the same.

Shots in red are unique to those versions.

7 in FC/Theatrical

5 in DC

Shot number	Final Cut and Theatrical	Director’s Cut
1	long shot, engine idling then accelerating	m/s plane turning and accelerating, stone wall background (Plockton or Stranraer?), red float, some rural background after that
2	c/u of engine	m/s plane gaining speed
3	m/s plane gaining speed, no background visible, music starts	c/u Howie in cockpit
4	l/s plane gaining speed, ripples on water (Anthony Shaffer’s The Wicker Man credit), rocky background as it takes off	POV cockpit of plane gaining speed, same rural background, rocks along coast, music starts
5	c/u Howie in cockpit, starring EW	l/s plane taking off rippled water, see shadow of something tall
6	1st shot of islands from cockpit	c/u Howie in cockpit, same shot as FC 5, no credit
7	2nd shot of islands from cockpit, Britt Ekland	POV cockpit, see islands, same shot as FC 6, no credit
8	l/s from another plane of plane over islands, Diane Cilento	lots of islands, featuring RB, etc (same as FC 10 and the rest from here on)
9	same, different background (ingrid Pitt and CL)
10	lots of brown islands, featuring rb, lm, etc
11	m/s plane against cliffs, more featuring same cast
12	m/s different shot of plane agains cliffs, sound editor…
13	brown land, sound editor…
14	m/s plane against far island, assist director…
15	vls of plane against brown coast, assist director…
16	m/s Howie in cockpit from his lower right, prod mgr…
17	vls plane against outcroppings, assoc music dir…
18	outcroppings only
19	c/u Howie from his left
20	1st South Africa shot showing pond, Corn Rigs begins
21	c/u Howie from his left
22	2nd South Africa shot of orchards
23	plane flying over trees and house from ground level, Art dir… (definitely LOGAN!!)
24	side shot of plane flying over (logan too most probably), music - Paul G
25	1st shot of Plockton aerial, music - Paul G
26	2nd shot of Plockton houses along harbor, Harry Waxman, Film editor - EBC
27	aerial of Plockton, same spot but closer in as 1st shot, screenplay - AS
28	m/s plane getting closer to water, prod - PS
29	long shot, plane landing by ship, (heading in opposite direction…), Prod - PS, DIr RH
30	l/s plane landing on rippled water
31	POV cockpit of landing
32	m/s plane with Howie in it
33	m/s of tail of plane
34	Nuada flag, plane taxiing

A recent photo provided by Ian Patterson seems to prove that the cave CL and EW are looking into in this pic, is Snib's Cave aka  Sawney Bean's Cave, Bennane Head, South Ayrshire. The stonework matches up. Lee and Woodward were touring locations around October 4, 1972.

2/20/19

Joe Wawrzyniak posted this in FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/29082840986/permalink/10154978199925987/

"Three British bit players as parishioners in this photo. The guy with the beard and big ears wearing a skinny tie is Fred Wood (a.k.a. Burn the Witch Fred). The pretty brunette on the right in the front row with shoulder length hair wearing a dress is Pauline Chamberlain. The old guy in a back row wearing glasses along with a black tie and a black suit is Juba Kennerley."

More research lead me to Pauline might still be alive. Wood died in 2003.  Kennerley was born in 1898 so who knows when he died.

Also, found this link to an online Final Cut:
http://wifimovies.net/watch/bdrrwydN-the-wicker-man-1973.html
Not high res but nice to have it online.

new tidbits

Robin Hardy director of The Wicker Man interview - Without Your Head

https://youtu.be/44rj8zwEWCw

Lots of good info here. A standout about the storyboards:

Robin has sold some of the illustrations at auction and given some to authors of books (Brown? Earnshaw?) so the likelihood of there ever being a complete collection looks unlikely. He thinks some get sold on eBay but I've never seen any.

Also, independent of that:
I discovered some showings of the movie in 1974 in the Atlanta area from searching for newspapers, in this case, The Atlanta Constitution. It had Warner Brothers pic ads for these dates: 5/14, 5/15 and one for 5/21 (Smyrna, GA). I can see that they use Warner Brothers ads but the 5/14 and 5/15 ads are different from the 5/21 ad which is thinner and only has the Wicker Man whereas the other two have the standard WB ad with Willow and LS below TWM.

Some new tidbits from an interview about the FInal Cut, 9/21/13

Robin Hardy’s interview following The Wicker Man: The Final Cut on Sept 17th

Posted by neilmcgfilm ⋅ September 21, 2013

https://neilmcglone.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/robin-hardys-interview-following-the-wicker-man-the-final-cut-on-sept-17th/

"Shepperton which was the big studio was on land owned by British Lion, it would have been worth much more as land for housing." Asset stripping...

"Someone quickly signed a cheque and that was it. There’s never been easier financing for any picture."

They "had already under Peter Snell’s excellent guidance made a wonderful film called DON’T LOOK NOW."

"Christopher Lee was furious with the way the film had been treated and took the film to Paris and entered into the Les Filmes du Fantastique Festival where it won the Grand Prix (In April of 1974) and probably the best review that I shall ever get from the film trade paper, Variety (in May of 1974)." (Parentheses my info)

"They had to make the film shorter in order to play with DON’T LOOK NOW. So about five scenes had to be cut out."

You were locked out of the editing room?

"Yes we were locked out of the cutting room, but we had already finished the film and the prints had gone out to distributors in the United States and that was how we were first able to restore the film in the United States based on the print that Roger Corman held."

"When we made that film, Tony was working with Hitchcock on FRENZY and had to go to New York to work with him, so he was only with us for the first week then after that Peter Schaffer really took over from him…..If I had problems with the script then I went to Peter or sometimes I spoke on the telephone to Tony in New York."

"We did have, surprising to me anyway, a sojourn in the south and the young students*, who were our guides through the distribution of the film, had a greater feeling, probably because they came from all over the United States, of what kind of reception we would have where, and how we would handle the PR and all that. They felt that we should literally take the bull by the horns with the priests and ministers in the south, so they arranged prayer breakfasts which are usually to talk about politics and not about films. They consulted with us after they had seen the film and we got them really interested. They loved the scenes on the beach and on the cliffs and Edward’s performance. They also loved his speech inside the Wicker Man, which you might be interested to know was the actual speech that Sir Walter Raleigh made before he went to the block (to be beheaded). Tony Schaffer suddenly found it almost hours  before we actually shot the scene because we weren’t very happy with the dialogue which we had at that point and insisted it be used. It was a very good decision."

"These students were marvelous, it was like a university project. Even when it came to raising the money, they all went to various areas of the east cost of the United States where they lived and persuaded doctors and dentists to help finance the restoration."

*Does he mean John Alan Simon and Ronald Weinberg or Ron and Micheline? (None were students but all were recent college graduates...)

"There was a sequence that Christopher misses and I understand why. Tony Schaffer and I went and studied apples at East Grinstead where there are these orchards that contain every single type of apple….When we got to the cutting room we thought, perhaps this is a little too much."

What happened to the original footage?

"I think it was just put somewhere where it was out of harm’s way and they just kept telling me that they hadn’t got it."

TWM TV premiere

This says that TWM premiered on tv in the UK and probably anywhere on tv (This was on ATV) in 1978. It doesn't say the exact date though. The earliest reference to a tv airing that I have found after that is 3/16/79, also on ATV.

Nice pic of the Wicker Man with torch bearers

A nice hi-res pic of the WM with the torch bearers here.
Other WM pics on that site:
https://i1.wp.com/bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/the-Wicker-Man-6.jpg
https://bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/the-Wicker-Man-5.jpg
https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3250820/rialto-pictures-will-release-the-final-cut-of-the-wicker-man-in-the-states/#jp-carousel-3250821

Myrtle Morrison's birthday

May mentions Myrtle had her ninth birthday "last Thursday" when she first meets Howie. That would be April 26 so she was born on April 26, 1964.

In one shot of the crowd enjoying themselves with Oak as the hobby horse outside the courtyard, we see Punch sneaking in to the courtyard (which is really, the Old Tollbooth in Kirkcudbright). At this point in the movie, Howie hasn't put on Alder's Punch outfit and Alder has only been seen wearing half of it so it is abit of a mystery as to what's going on here.

Does anyone know more about this?

35 mm print of the Director's Cut at Bonded Storage, Ft Lee, NJ

David Blake, the British Lion rep at the time the movie came out, tells a source that a 35 mm print of the Director's Cut was at one time held at Bonded Storage in Ft Lee, NJ. His contact there was Leon Saltzman.

Can anyone tell me more about this? Thanks.

The Ellangowan Hotel now set up for Wicker Man fans!

The Ellangowan Hotel is now being run by a guy who wants Wicker Man fans to come there. I'm not sure if it will be remodeled, as the wall the Harvest Festival photos were on has been moved back and the wall between the nooks where they sang Gently Johnny and where Howie had his dinner have been taken out, with all that as one space now. Here is the new website.

Let other fans know. We're hoping it will be successful.