Inside The Wicker Man

How Not to Make a Cult Classic

Allan Brown

• Publisher: Polygon
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781846971440
• eBook ISBN: 9780857902177
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Inside The Wicker Man is a treat for all cinemagoers, exhaustively researched and achieving a near-perfect balance between history, trivia and serious analysis. Allan Brown describes the filming and distribution of the cult masterpiece as a 'textbook example of How Things Should Never Be Done'.The omens were bad from the start, and proceeded to get much, much worse, with fake blossom on trees to simulate spring, actors chomping on ice-cubes to prevent their breath showing on film, and verbal and physical confrontations involving both cast and crew. The studio hated it and hardly bothered to distribute it, but today it finds favour with critics and fans alike, as a serious - if flawed - piece of cinema. Brown expertly guides readers through the film's convoluted history, attempting along the way to explain its enduring fascination, and providing interviews with the key figures - many of whom still have an axe to grind, and some of whom still harbour plans for a sequel.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Author biography
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword by Edward Woodward
• Introduction
• On the trail of The Wicker Man
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Chapter 19
• Chapter 20
• Appendix I The Wicker Man sequel: screenplay
• Appendix II The Wicker Man locations, scene by scene
• Appendix III Introduction to The Wicker Man from British Lion’s 1974 press book
• Appendix IV The Wicker Man: complete cast and crew list
• Appendix V From Christopher Lee’s autobiography Tall, Dark and Gruesome
• Appendix VI British and American press reviews
• Appendix VII Lord Summerisle’s complete introduction speech from Anthony Shaffer’s script
• Appendix VIII The cover blurb for The Wicker Man on its first release on home video in Britain, May 1981
• Appendix IX Documents
• Index
• List of Plates