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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind, This is Rob Lamb.

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Speaker 1: We have some episodes here for you. Let's see. Today

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Speaker 1: is going to be The wicker Man nineteen seventy three,

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Speaker 1: a part one of two. We had a lot to

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Speaker 1: say about this one, so we broke it up into

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Speaker 1: two pieces. This piece originally published five to twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: This is a vacation week, a week when we are

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Speaker 1: airing reruns every day in an attempt to catch up

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Speaker 1: and stay current and all. So this is a prime

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Speaker 1: week for a Weird House Cinema two partner because in

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Speaker 1: the Friday slot this week we will air The wicker

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Speaker 1: Man nineteen seventy three, Part two. So anyway, I hope

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Speaker 1: you enjoy this one and you'll get the other one

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Speaker 1: again at the end of the week.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb and.

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Speaker 3: This is Joe McCormick. And today, as we are recording this,

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Speaker 3: it is May first, the sacred festival of May Day,

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Speaker 3: and so we are going to be talking in accordance

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Speaker 3: with the season about the classic nineteen seventy three British film,

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Speaker 3: The wicker Man, which is usually usually grouped under a

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Speaker 3: genre people call full corror. Maybe we can quibble in

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Speaker 3: this episode about whether that title should or should not

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Speaker 3: be applied. And also note though we rarely do this

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Speaker 3: on Weird House Cinema, usually we keep it one movie

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Speaker 3: per episode. This is one we think we're going to

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Speaker 3: have to split into two parts because we love the

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Speaker 3: Wickerman and we're going to have a lot to say

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Speaker 3: about it. The only two other movies we've ever done

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Speaker 3: this with before were David Lynch's Doune and Highlander two

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Speaker 3: The Quickening, So putting the Wickerman in there, there is

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Speaker 3: cohesion to this trinity.

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Speaker 1: Yes, these are three films that are often associated with

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Speaker 1: each other, but I do agree like there's a lot

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Speaker 1: to say about the Wickerman. We're probably going to go

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Speaker 1: on and on a bit in a good way, so

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Speaker 1: it's very possible we'll split here.

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Speaker 3: So I'm very excited because The Wickerman is one of

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Speaker 3: my personal favorite movies. In fact, it's a mutual favorite

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Speaker 3: in our house. It's also one of my wife Rachel's

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Speaker 3: all time favorite movies. So we've got a lot of

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Speaker 3: like Wickerman merch in our house. I don't know if

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Speaker 3: you've seen any of that stuff, Rob, but we've got

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Speaker 3: like a Wickerman night light, and.

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Speaker 1: Oh man, I don't think I remember seeing any of this.

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Speaker 1: All right, it's great.

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Speaker 3: Well it lights up behind the Wicker glows. You know,

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Speaker 3: there's kind of an orange glow behind a Wickerman silhouette.

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Speaker 4: I guess.

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Speaker 3: Actually, before we go on to any further detail, there

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Speaker 3: is something I definitely want to say. So in every

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Speaker 3: Weird House Cinema episode we end up discussing the plot

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Speaker 3: of the movie that we're covering in some detail. So

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Speaker 3: it's always the case that you should watch the movie

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Speaker 3: first if you don't want to have anything spoiled. But

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Speaker 3: if you've never seen The Wickerman from nineteen seventy three,

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Speaker 3: this in particular is really a film I would recommend

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Speaker 3: going into knowing as little as possible. Obviously, it gets

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Speaker 3: into some horror territory, so if you're sensitive to horror themes,

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Speaker 3: you can look things up ahead of time. But otherwise,

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Speaker 3: if you have a general appetite for horror, I would

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Speaker 3: strongly strongly encourage you to not even glance at a

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Speaker 3: plot summary, not listen.

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Speaker 4: To any more of this episode, just go ahead and watch.

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Speaker 1: It, but then come back and listen to this. Yes.

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Speaker 3: Yes, So the first time I saw it, a friend

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Speaker 3: of mine when I was in college showed it to

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Speaker 3: me without telling me telling me anything ahead of time.

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Speaker 3: I'm just really grateful I got to experience it that way.

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Speaker 3: The Wickerman is such an unusual and surprising film. It

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Speaker 3: is full of unexpected humor and horror and delight and despair,

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Speaker 3: and even now, like fifty years later, in a world

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Speaker 3: where a lot of movies you may have already seen

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Speaker 3: have been inla fluenced by The Wickerman. If you haven't

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Speaker 3: seen it before and you don't know everything ahead of time,

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Speaker 3: I think it will keep you very intrigued and puzzled

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Speaker 3: in the best possible way.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, It's a film that really stands on its own,

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Speaker 1: even though it is part of the folk car subgenre

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Speaker 1: and is very influential over the full car subgenre. I

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Speaker 1: think that the big three that are often referred to

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Speaker 1: are sixty eighth, witch Finder, General, seventy one's Blood on

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Speaker 1: Satan's Claw, and then of course seventy three is The

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Speaker 1: wicker Man. But at the same time, nothing else is

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Speaker 1: really like The wicker Man, even other movies that have

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Speaker 1: the name The wicker Man. There are remakes of the

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Speaker 1: movie we're talking about here today are nothing like it.

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Speaker 3: We might have to get into the remake in part

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Speaker 3: two here. I think there really just is no other

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Speaker 3: movie like it. It is its own genre and perhaps

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Speaker 3: still the only movie in that genre. But anyway, if

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Speaker 3: you haven't seen The Wickerman yet and you want to

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Speaker 3: pause here and go watch it so you can, you

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Speaker 3: can see it unspoiled, and then come back, we will

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Speaker 3: give you a little music break.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 1: Looking back, I think I saw The wicker Man for

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Speaker 1: the first time, probably like on I think it was

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Speaker 1: A and E. So I saw it on cable. Didn't

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Speaker 1: know what I was getting into, but it instantly loved it,

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Speaker 1: and at some point decided, well, I need to own

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Speaker 1: this forever. I'm going to buy a special edition VHS

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Speaker 1: of The wicker Man in a big clamshell case. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and I did, and of course it was replaced by DVDs.

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Speaker 3: Just you know a few years later, did you have

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Speaker 3: the version with the wooden box.

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Speaker 1: I did not, but I do remember seeing that at

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Speaker 1: the movie store at the mall. They had all these

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Speaker 1: special editions that one I'm not sure if that was

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Speaker 1: an Anchor Bay release, but this was a time period

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Speaker 1: during which Anchor Bay was like the source for cool

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Speaker 1: you know, DVDVHS editions of whatever your favorite genre films

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Speaker 1: happened to be.

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Speaker 3: I have to mention again I've said this on the

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Speaker 3: show before, that someday we should come back and do

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Speaker 3: a series on weird house cinema. That's just movies that

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Speaker 3: had gimmick packaging, so like the release of The Wickerman

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Speaker 3: and the Wooden Box that I'm sure a lot of

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Speaker 3: people now just used to store whatever and.

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Speaker 4: Who knows what they put in there.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but also like the Dead Pit with the light

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Speaker 3: up eyes, and I'm sure we could get a whole

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Speaker 3: list of them. Gimmick packaging on VHS tapes is just

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Speaker 3: such a beautiful, beautiful thing. Like almost nothing gives me

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Speaker 3: more weird, gleeful nostalgia.

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Speaker 1: I know a collector or two we could reach out

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Speaker 1: to for them. But yeah, The Wickerman just such a

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Speaker 1: great weird film, one that succeeds in creating not merely

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Speaker 1: an uncanny horror movie, but a thought provoking cinematic enigma.

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Speaker 1: So not to say you can't appreciate it purely as

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Speaker 1: a horror film purely as this you know, roller coaster

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Speaker 1: ride and experience. But there's just a lot of rich

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Speaker 1: texture to the film that leaves you to make your

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Speaker 1: own interpretations. Like some of the big ones are of course,

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Speaker 1: regard like what is the film saying or not saying

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Speaker 1: about pagan religious beliefs, about modern Christian faith, about human

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Speaker 1: religion in general.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, one of my favorite things about it is that

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Speaker 3: the movie is saying a lot in a way, but

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Speaker 3: it's not really reducible to a message. Maybe I would

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Speaker 3: say it's not actually saying, it is singing, Like the

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Speaker 3: story is just overflowing with meaning and has the kind

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Speaker 3: of feeling of a commentary, but it is not really

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Speaker 3: reducible to a message or a thesis. There's no point

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Speaker 3: the movie really makes without also sort of making the

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Speaker 3: opposite point. Also, obviously, the subject matter means that the

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Speaker 3: story is entangled with the of religion, with religion, ritual

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Speaker 3: and faith, which are three different things, but also power

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Speaker 3: and violence and the law. Some people talk about this

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Speaker 3: movie like they think the point of it is Christianity

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Speaker 3: is bad and Paganism was better. I've seen people talk

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Speaker 3: about it like they think it kind of means that.

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Speaker 3: I feel like it would be hard to really say

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Speaker 3: that's the point of the movie if you think about it. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: at the same time, it is certainly not saying the

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Speaker 3: opposite either. This movie is not Christian apologetics, and it

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Speaker 3: was considered extremely offensive by many Christians when it came out.

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Speaker 3: And so instead the religious themes are more it's just

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Speaker 3: sort of a gardening project of religious themes. Just themes

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Speaker 3: are sort of growing, and we're seeing how they grow

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Speaker 3: and interact. It's like throwing Christianity and Celtic Paganism into

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Speaker 3: a weird little flower bed together and seeing what pops

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Speaker 3: up and how they twist around each other.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point, because I think it's

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Speaker 1: easy to reduce the film, you know, sort of boil

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Speaker 1: it down to okay, here we have just a it's

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Speaker 1: a foll car tale. It's uh, you know, exploitation, your

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Speaker 1: standard story about someone from the city or from civilization,

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Speaker 1: like going into a rural or more rural part of

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Speaker 1: their own country and invoking and encountering like, you know,

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Speaker 1: scary locals there.

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Speaker 5: Uh.

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Speaker 1: You know, you see this a lot uh in fiction

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Speaker 1: in general, but also in speculative fiction and weird fiction

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Speaker 1: and horror. There's certainly an element of that here, not

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Speaker 1: to say that it doesn't, you know, dip its toes

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Speaker 1: and wade into those waters. But like you said, it

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Speaker 1: presents ideas on both sides. Like there's there's certainly plenty

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Speaker 1: to admire in the idealistic, close to nature, sex positive

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Speaker 1: society of summer Isle, but we also come to see

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Speaker 1: the dangers of their ideology. Likewise, our protagonist comes from

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Speaker 1: a world of science and reason, and and we you know,

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Speaker 1: we we like science and reason, and then obviously that

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Speaker 1: seems to be a value that celebrated within the context

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Speaker 1: of the film as well. But we also seated his

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Speaker 1: world as one of, at least in his own experience,

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Speaker 1: one of sexual repression and deep seated unhappiness. And at

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Speaker 1: the same time, these two worlds are linked in very

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Speaker 1: fundamental ways, and the film does a great job of,

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Speaker 1: sometimes very subtly, sometimes more overtly, stitching those connections out.

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Speaker 4: Why should we.

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Speaker 3: Pause really quickly and just say, like what a one

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Speaker 3: sentence plot summary is. Yeah, It's like, there is a

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Speaker 3: remote Scottish island called summer Isle, and a West Highland

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Speaker 3: Police officer, a police detective named Sergeant Howie, has been

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Speaker 3: summoned to the island via an anonymous letter saying that

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Speaker 3: a girl on the island named Rowan Morrison has gone missing.

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Speaker 3: So Sergeant Howie, he is, by the way, a devoutly

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Speaker 3: religious Christian police inspector. He goes to the island by

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Speaker 3: seaplane to look for the missing girl and to find

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Speaker 3: out more about the note he received.

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Speaker 4: So that's the setup.

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Speaker 3: And then one of the main things we can say

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Speaker 3: about the plot branching out from there is that Sergeant

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Speaker 3: how he discovers the inhabitants of this remote Scottish island

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Speaker 3: are not Christians, there in fact practicing what seems to

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Speaker 3: be a variant of Celtic paganism, celebrating the old gods,

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Speaker 3: the joyous old gods, and some of the modes of

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Speaker 3: their celebration are quite distressing to him, the basics at least.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a good setup here.

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Speaker 3: Another thing I want to mention about the Wickerman that

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Speaker 3: I'd love and find really unique about the movie is

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Speaker 3: the ambiguity of the main characters. So the protagonist of

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Speaker 3: the film, the detective protagonist, Sergeant Howie, is simultaneously so

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Speaker 3: sympathetic and so hateable. His mission is a good one.

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Speaker 3: He is trying to investigate the case of a missing girl,

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Speaker 3: and we see his dedication to his mission in a

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Speaker 3: way that like, you know, obviously, if a child goes

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Speaker 3: me saying, it is very good to want to solve

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Speaker 3: that problem and look out for the welfare of the child,

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Speaker 3: which we see he is genuinely invested in. We also

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Speaker 3: see the setting of summerle from his perspective and are

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Speaker 3: thus frustrated with the kind of squirreliness and untrustworthiness of

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Speaker 3: the people he encounters while he's trying to solve this mystery.

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Speaker 3: But also Sergeant Howie's personality and worldview are so off putting.

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Speaker 3: He is arrogant, self righteous, puritanical, rude, and over and

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Speaker 3: over again his behavior is just so misaligned with how

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Speaker 3: it seems he should be conducting the investigation. He gets

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Speaker 3: sidetracked from this genuinely noble quest in order to screech

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Speaker 3: at people about saying the word penis and things like that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, like the scene where he disrupts the classroom.

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Speaker 4: Yeah yeah.

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Speaker 3: So this is not a type of protagonist I can

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Speaker 3: think of many other examples of and I find it

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Speaker 3: such an interesting choice. He's kind of like a combination

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Speaker 3: of like Hercule Poirot, but not as but without the

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Speaker 3: virtuosity and detective work. I'll come back to that in

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Speaker 3: a minute. But then also, I don't know, like one

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Speaker 3: of the one of the judges in The Crucible or

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Speaker 3: like the Witchfinder General. He's like a totally unsympathetically puritanical prude.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so do we like him, like.

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Speaker 3: Not really sometimes not at all, But also we we

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Speaker 3: sympathize with what he's doing, and we want him to

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Speaker 3: find out what happened to the girl and solve the mystery,

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Speaker 3: because we do repeatedly since that something treacherous is afoot

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Speaker 3: and that Sergeant Howie might be the only person on

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Speaker 3: this island who is actually trying to do what's right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and that's that's important to realize and something

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Speaker 1: that I think you can sometimes lose track of if

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Speaker 1: you haven't seen the film in a long time, or

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Speaker 1: rather if you've seen the film and you know the

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Speaker 1: general plot, you know what's going to happen and you're

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Speaker 1: rewatching it. But yeah, it's important to note like what

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Speaker 1: he's not like, He's not a pure punchline like he's

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Speaker 1: not a he's not a straight man to set up

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Speaker 1: a joke. Yeah, and we'll talk more about the tone

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Speaker 1: here in a second. He's also not a character that

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Speaker 1: deserves punishment like it's. It's you can easily imagine a cheap,

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Speaker 1: kind of like easy comics Tales from the Crypt version

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Speaker 1: of this exact story, where his downfall is directly connected

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Speaker 1: to a specific action or choice on his part, or

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Speaker 1: a deep seated character flaw or something. And that's not

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Speaker 1: really the case either, or at least it's not that

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Speaker 1: one thing that fits into the the you know, the

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Speaker 1: little box in the in the Tales of the Crypt

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Speaker 1: comic book. You know, it's it's broader than that.

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Speaker 3: It's more complicated, right, I know exactly what you're saying. So, yeah,

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Speaker 3: he's not like a Tails from the Crypt protagonist. To

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Speaker 3: is the classic format of that character is it is

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Speaker 3: someone who has done something quite evil, is like flawed

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Speaker 3: in a way that that spells their own doom. They're

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Speaker 3: going to get a kind of karmic punch, and we

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Speaker 3: are satisfied to see them get it.

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Speaker 4: Howie is not like that.

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Speaker 3: His unlikeability is shallower and more esthetic. Again, it's just

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Speaker 3: that he is like a rude, arrogant, aggressive, prudish, self

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Speaker 3: righteous jerk. But again I come back to he is

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Speaker 3: a character like that, but we're with him because we

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Speaker 3: sense something is very wrong on this island and he

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Speaker 3: might be the only person who's able to do something

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Speaker 3: about it. But then again, is there something wrong on

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Speaker 3: this island. Another way the movie really keeps you guessing

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Speaker 3: is the characterization of the people positioned as Sergeant Howie's antagonists,

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Speaker 3: like Lord Summerle played by Christopher Lee in a masterful

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Speaker 3: performance we'll talk about more as we go on, or

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Speaker 3: Miss Rose played by Diane Cilento by sort of the

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Speaker 3: default structure of the mystery narrative. These are the suspects

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Speaker 3: in the mystery disappearance of Rowen Morison, and they're so

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Speaker 3: interesting and likable and polite and have thoughtful perspectives, and

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Speaker 3: they're sometimes just positively jolly in the face of Howie

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Speaker 3: being like rude and aggressive to them. And I don't know,

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Speaker 3: like all the antagonists are so lovable even when it

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Speaker 3: feels like they're covering something up or not being forthright

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Speaker 3: about what they know.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, another weird thing about the characters.

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Speaker 3: This is one of the only detective stories I can

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Speaker 3: think of. In fact, maybe it's the only one. Could

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Speaker 3: you even think of a possible counterexample? I don't know

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Speaker 3: one of the only detective stories I know of where

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Speaker 3: the protagonist is not only unlikable but not particularly competent. Right,

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Speaker 3: this is what You always have a detective story about

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Speaker 3: somebody who has powers of reasoning and insights, Sherlock Holmes

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Speaker 3: or Poirot. You know, detectives who are skilled at solving

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Speaker 3: a complicated puzzle. Sergeant Howie is clearly shown in the

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Speaker 3: movie to be not a very good detective at all,

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Speaker 3: and I think this is an essential part of his characterization.

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Speaker 3: He is constantly missing important clues and constantly making bad

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Speaker 3: choices that lead to dead ends in his pursuit of information.

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Speaker 3: I think one of the main feelings that the audience

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Speaker 3: will generally have about Sergeant Howie is the feeling of pity.

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Speaker 3: It's like, oh boy, this poor guy, he is out

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Speaker 3: of his depth.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, isn't that.

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Speaker 3: So strange to have a what is essentially a detective

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Speaker 3: story and that's a key feature of your protagonist. Can

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Speaker 3: you think of another story like that?

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Speaker 1: The only examples I can think of are examples where

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Speaker 1: the character is played for humor. Yeah, and this is

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Speaker 1: where we should probably talk about the tone of the film,

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Speaker 1: and I'll just goe and mentioned like humor wise, there

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Speaker 1: are lots of things I think you can you can

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Speaker 1: you will find humorous in The wicker Man, and I

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Speaker 1: think those things are intended. And yet at the same time,

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Speaker 1: it's not a comedy. It is played straight, and certainly

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Speaker 1: Sergeant Howie's character is played straight like it's you could

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Speaker 1: you could easily imagine a character like this tweaked into

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Speaker 1: more of like a Michael Scott from the office to area,

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Speaker 1: you know, or various like bumbling detective comedies we've seen

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Speaker 1: over the years, and that's not what this film is.

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Speaker 1: And of course as well as we will continue to

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Speaker 1: discuss like it does defy easy categorization in a number

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Speaker 1: of ways.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I like the way you put it about the humor.

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Speaker 4: I think that's right. It's like, there is a lot.

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Speaker 3: Of intended humor in the movie, and it's ironic in nature.

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Speaker 3: It's not in the form of overt jokes and gags.

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Speaker 3: But anyway, just all these character dynamics, like the unlikeability

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Speaker 3: of the protagonist, the incompetence of the protagonist, and the

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Speaker 3: likability and thoughtfulness of his antagonists. All these things really

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Speaker 3: keep you guessing, or they certainly did keep me guessing

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Speaker 3: when I first watched Again. When I first saw this,

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Speaker 3: I really had no idea where the movie was going

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Speaker 3: and was floored by the ending, the famous surprise ending.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, And that's a testament to a film like

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Speaker 1: this if you're along for the ride, even if you

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Speaker 1: are beginning to wonder, like, where could this ride possibly

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Speaker 1: be going?

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Speaker 3: Now, we've said several times we want to come back

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Speaker 3: to the tone of the movie. I think I said

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Speaker 3: at the beginning that it's questionable whether you should really

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Speaker 3: call this movie a horror movie. When people call it horror,

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Speaker 3: I think they're thinking mainly about the ending, which is

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Speaker 3: absolutely horrifying. But for like ninety ninety five percent of

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Speaker 3: the movie, does it really feel like a horror film?

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Speaker 4: I don't think so.

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Speaker 3: I think most of the runtime it feels more like

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Speaker 3: a bizarre, whimsical, religiously themed mystery.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and even just feels at times feels like

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Speaker 1: a goofy musical, but not at like a laugh like

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Speaker 1: a horr horror horror goofy musical, but just like you

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Speaker 1: might ask yourself, what am I watching? My wife had

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Speaker 1: never seen it before, and she watched part of it

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Speaker 1: with me last night, and I think that was kind

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Speaker 1: of her reaction, Like I was like, do you want

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Speaker 1: to watch part of this full Carr movie from the

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Speaker 1: early nineteen seventies, And she's like sure, and then she's like,

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Speaker 1: what's going on?

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Speaker 4: This is funny.

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Speaker 3: Last night, Rachel and I also showed this movie to

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Speaker 3: somebody for the first time and they had a similar reaction, though,

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Speaker 3: like what is going on for much of the time,

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Speaker 3: But I can report there was a big thumbs up

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Speaker 3: in the end. But yeah, it's so so. It's got

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Speaker 3: that weird not horror at all tone for most of

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Speaker 3: the runtime and then suddenly bam the ending, which is

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Speaker 3: I think one of the bleakest, most terrifying scenes I

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Speaker 3: can think of in all of movie history. It is

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Speaker 3: at once beautiful and terrible. It makes your blood run

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Speaker 3: cold and then warm and then cold again.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty powerful, and I in terms of

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Speaker 1: films we've watched on Weird House, I'd put it up

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Speaker 1: there with Seconds. Yeah, in terms of its impact. I

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Speaker 1: also want to add that even in the film's restored state,

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Speaker 1: which is generally how you'll find it, I assume streaming

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Speaker 1: and certainly on home media, there's a rawness to the

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Speaker 1: footage that at times contributes to this feeling that we're

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Speaker 1: watching documentary footage of some sort, like it's a documentary

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Speaker 1: about the way people actually live on this island. Also,

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Speaker 1: you have a lot of non actors in there and musicians,

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Speaker 1: as we'll note, which adds to that feel like I'm

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Speaker 1: not watching actors, I'm watching real people and this must

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Speaker 1: be how they live. The production design, the locations are

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Speaker 1: all a part of this, and you could also probably

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Speaker 1: compare this to some rather different films from the nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventies also have a similar feel, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre,

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Speaker 1: though again very different sort of horror film.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, though this movie has a lot more of a

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Speaker 3: community feel than Texas Chainsaw Masacar does, which is very isolated.

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Speaker 4: And you're only going to meet.

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Speaker 3: A few weird characters, but it has that documentary visual style.

401
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Speaker 3: What you mentioned about the presence of non actors is

402
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Speaker 3: I feel like a big has a big impact on

403
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Speaker 3: the ambience of this film. There are scenes in a

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Speaker 3: pub or out in a you know, on a street

405
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Speaker 3: beside a harbor, where lots of people are milling around

406
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Speaker 3: on screen, and most of them are clearly not actors.

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Speaker 3: They're people kind of looking weird and confused and mumbling,

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Speaker 3: and it contributes greatly to a sense of reality. Actually, yeah,

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Speaker 3: And it also it makes the important characters pop more,

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Speaker 3: like when you know, all these kind of like old

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Speaker 3: men who are just kind of mumbling their lines a

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Speaker 3: little bit as they're standing around outside the end, and

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Speaker 3: then we meet Lord Summerle and suddenly it's for Lee

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Speaker 3: and you're like awed by his presence.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's a great point.

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Speaker 4: Now.

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Speaker 3: Another thing that is kind you could think of as

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Speaker 3: just an extension of the very unusual tone of the

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Speaker 3: movie is the fact that it's also sort of a

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Speaker 3: musical like. It not only prominently features music with lyrics

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Speaker 3: on the soundtrack, it has several diegetic musical numbers where

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Speaker 3: the characters sing and even sing into the camera. Is

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Speaker 3: there another horror movie like that?

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Speaker 4: I don't know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't think of another film, certainly a horror

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Speaker 1: film that uses music quite the same way.

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Speaker 3: One thing that I think is interesting about the use

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Speaker 3: of music is that only the characters who live on

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Speaker 3: summerle seem to know that they're in a musical. So

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Speaker 3: like normally, if you're in a musical, all the characters sing,

431
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Speaker 3: or all of the major characters sing. The protagonist certainly sings,

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Speaker 3: But Sergeant Howie does not sing except we see him

433
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Speaker 3: again it's diegetic music. We see him singing him at

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Speaker 3: church at the beginning of the movie. That's just a

435
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:04,840
Speaker 3: scene where he's in church. He never like looks into

436
00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:08,040
Speaker 3: the camera and sings the way say britt Eklund does

437
00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:12,080
Speaker 3: or the way Christopher Lee does. So it's only the

438
00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:15,920
Speaker 3: Pagans that are allowed to actually be in a musical

439
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:20,000
Speaker 3: as musical players. Sergeant Howie is just sort of living

440
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:23,520
Speaker 3: in their musical world without getting to be an agent

441
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 3: of music himself.

442
00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:28,160
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, what if he had sung though, that would

443
00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:30,760
Speaker 1: have been interesting taken in, taken more of it, like

444
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:35,480
Speaker 1: a Schmigadoon direction where he realizes that he has to

445
00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:38,560
Speaker 1: sing in order to in order to connect with these characters.

446
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:42,560
Speaker 3: M yeah, maybe things would have turned out differently for him.

447
00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:44,840
Speaker 1: He does sing a little the end. He does sing

448
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:46,480
Speaker 1: a little the end. I think, well, we'll get back

449
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:48,719
Speaker 1: to that. And while he may sing just a little bit.

450
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:51,640
Speaker 1: He never dances, and dance is also a big part

451
00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:54,399
Speaker 1: of a number of these these musical numbers where we

452
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:56,800
Speaker 1: see some sort of ritual dance taking place.

453
00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:59,119
Speaker 3: In fact, at one point when he's in disguise, he

454
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:02,960
Speaker 3: gets yelled at for not dancing because he's in disguise

455
00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:05,960
Speaker 3: going down the May Day Parade and uh at one

456
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:08,399
Speaker 3: and Christopher Lee turns and sees him just kind of

457
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:11,160
Speaker 3: wandering down the road instead of, I don't know, doing

458
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:13,160
Speaker 3: whatever he's supposed to be doing, and he yells at him.

459
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:16,159
Speaker 4: Cut some capers, man, you.

460
00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:18,000
Speaker 1: Got time to glance, you got time to dance?

461
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:21,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I don't think we can possibly do an

462
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:22,360
Speaker 3: elevator pitch for Wickerman.

463
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:24,920
Speaker 1: No, it pretty much stands on its own. So let's

464
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:27,200
Speaker 1: let's go ahead in here just a little bit from

465
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:35,000
Speaker 1: the what I believe is the original trailer. I got

466
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 1: a tail unfold whose lightest work would head O up?

467
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:47,840
Speaker 1: And I'm so pretest young blood.

468
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:55,480
Speaker 4: I am here to investigate the disappearance.

469
00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:57,680
Speaker 1: I'm a young girl.

470
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:00,520
Speaker 4: Where is Ron Morrison?

471
00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:03,919
Speaker 3: If Ruin Morrison existed, we would.

472
00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:07,800
Speaker 2: Not I should expect Manda read the.

473
00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:09,960
Speaker 1: Name of God woman, What kind of mother are you

474
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:13,120
Speaker 1: that can stand by and so your own child slaughtered?

475
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 2: You are the fool, little Harry, the liars.

476
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:34,000
Speaker 1: You are despicable little liars. Where if Morrison, if Ruin

477
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:36,560
Speaker 1: Marrison existed, we would.

478
00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:39,679
Speaker 4: Not I should spect Manda, she was bird?

479
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:41,560
Speaker 1: You are the fool?

480
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:45,120
Speaker 4: Where is Rowan Morrison?

481
00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:47,359
Speaker 2: Oh my god?

482
00:26:57,720 --> 00:26:58,200
Speaker 4: All right?

483
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,000
Speaker 1: If you would like to see The wicker Man again.

484
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,560
Speaker 1: Widely available in all formats, and it's could following has

485
00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:06,959
Speaker 1: seen multiple special editions released over the years. There have

486
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:08,919
Speaker 1: been a few different cuts. I'm not sure to what

487
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,119
Speaker 1: degree we're going to get into talking about different cuts

488
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:14,920
Speaker 1: of the film. I think there are like three major versions,

489
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:17,840
Speaker 1: like a theatrical version, and then they added some minutes

490
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: to it, and then they took away a few minutes.

491
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:25,359
Speaker 1: But definitely watch it, and you know the best format

492
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:27,760
Speaker 1: you can get. Maybe shopple around a little bit on

493
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:30,960
Speaker 1: those different forms. I watched it in a restored form

494
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 1: on Blu ray one that I rented from Atlanta's own

495
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:36,200
Speaker 1: video Drome from their full car sub section.

496
00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 4: Nice.

497
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:40,280
Speaker 1: But I don't know which edition it was. I know

498
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,760
Speaker 1: it had like baked in trailers at the beginning, which

499
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:46,800
Speaker 1: I did not like. I feel like especially now. It

500
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:48,880
Speaker 1: makes me think it was maybe a slightly older Blu ray,

501
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,400
Speaker 1: because more and more Blu rays these days, I feel

502
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:55,480
Speaker 1: like are treated like the premium item they are, and

503
00:27:55,520 --> 00:28:00,639
Speaker 1: they're like less tied to timely trailers from pictures.

504
00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:03,399
Speaker 3: Wait, what was what were your baked in trailers for?

505
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:07,480
Speaker 3: Mine was for a re release of American Psycho. Yes, yes, okay,

506
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 3: so we've got the same disc, do we?

507
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:09,480
Speaker 1: Okay?

508
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,800
Speaker 3: Okay, So then you probably watched what's called the final cut?

509
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:17,840
Speaker 3: I think so, And the final cut is I think

510
00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 3: the latest of the major cuts of the film. Did

511
00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:25,680
Speaker 3: your version also have some scenes that were in much

512
00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:28,320
Speaker 3: lower film quality than most of the movie?

513
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:31,359
Speaker 1: I believe? So? Yeah, restored sequences, yes.

514
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:33,439
Speaker 3: So, like the scene where Christopher Lee is outside the

515
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:35,760
Speaker 3: inn at night talking to a slug about how he

516
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 3: wants to be like him.

517
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:37,880
Speaker 1: Oh so good.

518
00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:40,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was not in the original version of the

519
00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:42,640
Speaker 3: movie that I saw. I think the first one I

520
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:47,000
Speaker 3: saw was the theatrical cut. But so that's a restored

521
00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:50,560
Speaker 3: scene that the film does not look great, But I'm

522
00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:52,760
Speaker 3: glad it's there and it's worth it to have, even

523
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:56,000
Speaker 3: though it's cutting back and forth between extremely different levels

524
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:56,640
Speaker 3: of fidelity.

525
00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 4: It's it's worth it to have that.

526
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:01,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it helps too that the best fidelity in

527
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:05,400
Speaker 1: the film is not like so great that it feels

528
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:19,120
Speaker 1: as jarring, or at least that's the impression I had. Alright,

529
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:21,840
Speaker 1: Let's get into the people behind this film a bit,

530
00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 1: starting with the director, of course. The director was Robin Hardy,

531
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 1: who lived nineteen twenty nine through twenty sixteen. English director

532
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:32,800
Speaker 1: who started out directing for the National Film Board of Canada,

533
00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 1: then Yeah Yeah, then PBS aligned so O World Theater,

534
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:40,720
Speaker 1: before moving to London to partner with screenwriter Anthony Shaffer

535
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,840
Speaker 1: to co found an advertising agency. The wicker Man, again,

536
00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:47,400
Speaker 1: released in seventy three, filmed in seventy two, I believe,

537
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:51,520
Speaker 1: was his first feature directorial project and by far his

538
00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:54,840
Speaker 1: most impactful. He only followed it up with two other films,

539
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:58,280
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six is The Fantasist and twenty eleven's The

540
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,840
Speaker 1: Wicker Tree, based on his own novel, Cowboys for a Christ.

541
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: He also has a story credit on nineteen eighty eight's

542
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:08,320
Speaker 1: Forbidden Son. After The Wickerman, he returned to the US

543
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:11,000
Speaker 1: and mostly wrote historical novels and worked. According to his

544
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 1: obituary in The Guardian as a consultant in the historical

545
00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 1: theme park business. David Piner is the novelist the novel

546
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:24,280
Speaker 1: ritual from nineteen sixty seven. This apparently is what they like,

547
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:26,200
Speaker 1: they paid to adapt it. It's not one of these

548
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:27,880
Speaker 1: cases where they just kind of ripped it off, like

549
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:31,360
Speaker 1: they paid to do the adaptation but then ultimately deviated

550
00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 1: from a lot of it. I haven't read it, but

551
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 1: I'm to understand it. You know, it concerns, maybe on

552
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,200
Speaker 1: some level, the same skeleton of a plot line where

553
00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:42,680
Speaker 1: a police investigator is checking out some rural community that

554
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:46,720
Speaker 1: ends up having some you know, pagan elements to their

555
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:48,440
Speaker 1: religious rights.

556
00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:50,640
Speaker 3: No way to confirm this, just to guess, but I

557
00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:53,560
Speaker 3: like to imagine that this movie was at least in

558
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:58,720
Speaker 3: part based on something from Christopher Lee's apocryphal collection of

559
00:30:58,760 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 3: occult Tomes.

560
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:05,040
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. Now, Anthony Shaffer that we mentioned,

561
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 1: who wrote the screenplay. He lived nineteen twenty six through

562
00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:11,320
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, British writer whose previous credits included

563
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 1: Alfred Hitchcock's nineteen seventy two film Frenzy, which, if you

564
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:17,640
Speaker 1: haven't seen it, seen it as quite a solid psycho

565
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:20,600
Speaker 1: killer film starring John Finch and Barry Foster.

566
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:23,200
Speaker 4: I've actually never seen that one. I love Hitchcock, but.

567
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:25,400
Speaker 1: Oh it's good. It hasn't as I recall it as

568
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 1: a really nice long shot.

569
00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:30,640
Speaker 3: At one point I had some movies with those yet

570
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:33,560
Speaker 3: was this his second to last movie?

571
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:34,480
Speaker 1: It was pretty late.

572
00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:36,080
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.

573
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:40,480
Speaker 1: And also Schaeffer wrote the two man play turned film

574
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:44,440
Speaker 1: Sleuth from the same year, starring Lawrence Olivier and Michael Kine,

575
00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:47,520
Speaker 1: and he'd later work on Let's See. There was a

576
00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:51,320
Speaker 1: whole series of seventies and eighties Agatha Christie film adaptations

577
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:55,120
Speaker 1: in which Peter Eustonoff played Birot and his identical twin brother.

578
00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 1: Peter Shaffer, who lived nineteen twenty six through twenty sixteen,

579
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:01,680
Speaker 1: was also an acclaimed screenwriter whose stage in screen credits

580
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:05,480
Speaker 1: include Equis and Amedeus Wow Talented Siblings.

581
00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:08,320
Speaker 3: Yes, there is a lot to love about The Wickerman,

582
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:12,680
Speaker 3: but I think it has a particularly fantastic screenplay for

583
00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:16,840
Speaker 3: a horror film. Not to insult horror films generally, but

584
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:18,680
Speaker 3: you know, I'm a lover of horror, but I'm aware

585
00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:23,200
Speaker 3: that a lot of horror writing does it is attracted

586
00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:28,960
Speaker 3: to cliches like a magnet sort of, and this screenplay,

587
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 3: even though now we live in a world where a

588
00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:34,720
Speaker 3: lot of other stories I think have copied a lot

589
00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:37,840
Speaker 3: from The Wickerman, but at least for its own time,

590
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:44,000
Speaker 3: incredibly unusual and unique and remarkably I think, free of cliches,

591
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:49,800
Speaker 3: just an original and authentic exploration.

592
00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 1: Absolutely all right. Getting into the cast here playing Sergeant Howie,

593
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:57,120
Speaker 1: we have Edward Woodwarton, who lived nineteen thirty through two

594
00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:00,000
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, British actor of stage, screen and TV,

595
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:02,480
Speaker 1: who at the time was best known in the UK

596
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 1: for his portrayal of secret Service agent Callen on the

597
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:08,960
Speaker 1: TV show of the same name. Now, when I first

598
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 1: watched The wicker Man, I knew him mostly from advertisements

599
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 1: for the TV show The Equalizer, which ran eighty five

600
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:16,720
Speaker 1: through eighty nine.

601
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:19,040
Speaker 4: What does an equalizer do?

602
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:22,240
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's not a show I ever actually watched,

603
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:25,320
Speaker 1: but I know I just was like, well, that's the equalizer.

604
00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:26,160
Speaker 1: He equalizes.

605
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 3: It sounds like a piece of audio equipment.

606
00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:31,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if the Equalizer on the TV

607
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 1: show is a cop if he's like a fixer, like

608
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:36,080
Speaker 1: which side of the law he's aligned with. Is he

609
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:39,000
Speaker 1: a secret agent, I'm not sure, but he equalizes, so

610
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:41,520
Speaker 1: there's some implied neutrality there.

611
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 3: I guess I've got a seventy nine two equalizer man.

612
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: He has a ton of credits, though, including nineteen sixty

613
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 1: four's Beckett, nineteen eighty's Breaker Morant that he had the

614
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:57,000
Speaker 1: title role in that. He's in nineteen eighty four as

615
00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:00,160
Speaker 1: a Christmas carol. He plays the ghost of chrism Is

616
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:02,120
Speaker 1: Present in that one. This is one of the Christmas

617
00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:04,080
Speaker 1: carols that my family watched a lot when I was

618
00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:04,440
Speaker 1: a kid.

619
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:05,800
Speaker 4: That's so funny.

620
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:08,840
Speaker 3: The ghost of Christmas Present is supposed to be jolly

621
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,120
Speaker 3: and full of good cheer, which is not at all

622
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:12,480
Speaker 3: in the role I'm familiar with.

623
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:15,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's a very different role. He pops up

624
00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:19,000
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven's Hot Fuzz. His only other

625
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:21,880
Speaker 1: horror films is that I'm aware of, are nineteen seventy

626
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:25,600
Speaker 1: one's Bloodsuckers and nineteen eighty two's The Appointment. And I

627
00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:27,440
Speaker 1: would also be remiss if I didn't mention that he

628
00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:30,440
Speaker 1: plays Sol in the nineteen eighty five King David movie.

629
00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 1: That's the one that has George Eastman in it.

630
00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:35,000
Speaker 3: This is like the second reference to this in like

631
00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:35,840
Speaker 3: three weeks.

632
00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:38,440
Speaker 1: Everything comes back to George Eastman. Yeah.

633
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:41,200
Speaker 3: I think Edward Woodward should get a lot of love

634
00:34:41,400 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 3: for this performance because it's kind of a thankless role.

635
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:48,560
Speaker 3: Like it is so much easier to love the Pagans

636
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:51,239
Speaker 3: in the movie, to love Christopher Lee, and to love

637
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:54,800
Speaker 3: Diane Cilento and Ingrid Pitt, you know, all the local

638
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:58,680
Speaker 3: characters who were sort of the colorful, interesting wild ones.

639
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:02,439
Speaker 3: As we've said many times, the protagonist of this movie

640
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:04,319
Speaker 3: is not very likable. He's kind of a stick in

641
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:06,800
Speaker 3: the mud. He's kind of a jerk, and so I

642
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:11,360
Speaker 3: think it's very easy to miss how important the portrayal

643
00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:14,000
Speaker 3: of this character is to the effect of the story

644
00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:16,960
Speaker 3: in the end. And Edward Woodward is great in the role.

645
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 3: He doesn't try to steal the show and make his

646
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:23,520
Speaker 3: character more likable than he needs to be. Instead, he's

647
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:27,680
Speaker 3: exactly what is called for by the script, and he's great.

648
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:28,280
Speaker 4: He's great.

649
00:35:28,640 --> 00:35:32,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's a complex role. It's arguably far more

650
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:35,040
Speaker 1: complex than any of the other characters that we encounter

651
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:37,759
Speaker 1: in the picture. I was watching an interview with the

652
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:42,000
Speaker 1: director and Hardy really gives a lot of credit to

653
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:46,560
Speaker 1: Woodward for creating this character on the screen, Like he says,

654
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:48,759
Speaker 1: you know, like with Christopher Lee's character, we had these

655
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,600
Speaker 1: parameters set out and Christopher Lee delivered, you know, knocked

656
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,040
Speaker 1: out of the park. But there was a lot to

657
00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:57,879
Speaker 1: Sergeant Howie that really had to be created in the performance,

658
00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:01,960
Speaker 1: and he Woodward all the credit in the world for

659
00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 1: doing that. That's right.

660
00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:06,320
Speaker 3: A lot of how we feel about how he isn't

661
00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:10,919
Speaker 3: even in his lines. It's in kind of facial expressions, reactions.

662
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:16,759
Speaker 3: He brings such a sense of visible frustration to the

663
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:19,919
Speaker 3: character in every scene almost you can just see him

664
00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:22,800
Speaker 3: just kind of like shaking with annoyance.

665
00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:26,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, and wrestling with what he's seeing. You know, there's

666
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:29,799
Speaker 1: a lot of he's not telling you his internal monologue

667
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 1: about how conflicted he may feel about certain things, or

668
00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:35,080
Speaker 1: tempted he may feel about certain things. He's just in

669
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:36,120
Speaker 1: the performance, you know.

670
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:39,320
Speaker 3: When he's trying to say hide to maybe a prurient

671
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,160
Speaker 3: sexual interest that he knows he should not have, but

672
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:46,760
Speaker 3: is part of his character as well. So, yeah, totally agree,

673
00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:48,360
Speaker 3: Woodward is excellent.

674
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:51,400
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to Lord Summerle who, as

675
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:53,799
Speaker 1: we've been mentioning is played by the great Christopher Lee,

676
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:56,799
Speaker 1: who of nineteen twenty two through twenty fifteen. This is

677
00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:00,759
Speaker 1: our seventh Weird House Cinema selection featuring Sir Christopher Lee,

678
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:03,960
Speaker 1: you know as we as you know, best known for

679
00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:06,760
Speaker 1: such roles as Sarimon the White and Lord of the Rings,

680
00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:10,840
Speaker 1: Dracula in multiple Hammer Horror films and some non Hammer

681
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:14,759
Speaker 1: horror films, and Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels.

682
00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:17,080
Speaker 1: I just caught Revenge of the Sith on the big

683
00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:20,680
Speaker 1: screen in its re release, and his performance is brief

684
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:23,680
Speaker 1: but very memorable, has a nice little arc to it,

685
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:27,319
Speaker 1: probably I would say, arguably stands out among his very

686
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:28,840
Speaker 1: late career performances.

687
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:31,279
Speaker 3: I've said this before that I'm not as big a

688
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:33,680
Speaker 3: fan of the Star Wars prequels, though not to poo

689
00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:35,960
Speaker 3: poo anybody who does love them. But for me, at

690
00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 3: least even in my least favorite, which is Attack of

691
00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:42,399
Speaker 3: the Clones, when Christopher Lee shows up, it's just it's

692
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:46,799
Speaker 3: a whole other movie now, Like I love him, and yeah,

693
00:37:46,880 --> 00:37:49,440
Speaker 3: so Christopher Lee is one of my favorites, but this

694
00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:52,080
Speaker 3: is it's got to be. This is my all time favorite.

695
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:56,760
Speaker 3: Christopher Lee role the Wickerman is head and shoulders above

696
00:37:56,800 --> 00:37:57,400
Speaker 3: them all to me.

697
00:37:58,000 --> 00:37:59,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and this is an opinion that Christopher

698
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:03,319
Speaker 1: Lee shared as well. By most accounts, the film was

699
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,080
Speaker 1: reportedly a real passion project for him. We mentioned how

700
00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:09,440
Speaker 1: he was pretty much in the room, being one of

701
00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:12,799
Speaker 1: the people who brought it together to begin with, and

702
00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:15,680
Speaker 1: he claimed, and I have no reason to doubt him

703
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:18,840
Speaker 1: to have waived off any payment for the role. That

704
00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:21,879
Speaker 1: basically like they couldn't afford him, they couldn't afford his rate.

705
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:23,680
Speaker 1: And he's like, well, don't worry about it. I want

706
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:26,200
Speaker 1: this film to be made. And then when the film

707
00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:28,840
Speaker 1: studio opted to release it in the UK without a

708
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:32,160
Speaker 1: screening as part of a double feature, the second half

709
00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:34,240
Speaker 1: of the double feature with Don't Look Now.

710
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:36,120
Speaker 4: Which is a great horror movie.

711
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's a very very well received picture. I

712
00:38:40,280 --> 00:38:42,920
Speaker 1: don't know if it's these are two strange kind of

713
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:46,279
Speaker 1: an odd match to pair them together, Yes, but that

714
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:48,959
Speaker 1: kind of also shows you that the studio seemingly didn't

715
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:50,359
Speaker 1: really know what to do with the film, and we're

716
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:51,759
Speaker 1: just kind of like, well, just put it out there,

717
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:54,440
Speaker 1: we're not going to screen it. But Lee then personally

718
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:56,880
Speaker 1: calls all the film critics that he knew of to

719
00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,600
Speaker 1: encourage them to see the film and offering to buy

720
00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:01,880
Speaker 1: their it if they needed him to.

721
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:06,600
Speaker 3: Wow, that's great U And I love that because I'm

722
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:10,000
Speaker 3: pretty sure actually I don't know what the original critical

723
00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:15,040
Speaker 3: reception was, but I know the studio that owned that

724
00:39:15,160 --> 00:39:17,399
Speaker 3: owned the Wickerman hated it when when it was coming

725
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:20,040
Speaker 3: to I think it was em I like they famously

726
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:23,360
Speaker 3: like were panicking because they thought the movie was so

727
00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:26,160
Speaker 3: bad and they were trying to find ways to avoid

728
00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:28,759
Speaker 3: releasing it or to to cut it down. I think

729
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:30,359
Speaker 3: I think they just hated what they had on their

730
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:33,040
Speaker 3: hands and they didn't realize that it was a masterpiece.

731
00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:36,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there there. This seems to definitely be the

732
00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:39,359
Speaker 1: be true to some extent, but then there's also some

733
00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:41,439
Speaker 1: seems to be some myth making on top of that.

734
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:42,879
Speaker 4: Okay, you know, like I.

735
00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:44,480
Speaker 1: Said, this is a film that's been very popular for

736
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:46,320
Speaker 1: a long time. There's been a lot of interviews and

737
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:50,279
Speaker 1: a lot of comments. Like I saw one story that

738
00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:53,239
Speaker 1: I'm I'm casting some doubt on that Rod Stewart tried

739
00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:55,080
Speaker 1: to buy all the copies of it at one point

740
00:39:55,239 --> 00:39:58,240
Speaker 1: so he could destroy his then girlfriend's nude scene, things

741
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:01,200
Speaker 1: like that, I don't know that, I'm just going to

742
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:01,920
Speaker 1: pass that by.

743
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:05,480
Speaker 3: Was he dating britt Ecklund, I believe so, Yes, Okay, Yeah.

744
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:08,360
Speaker 1: Also it said that later on, when the film was

745
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:12,000
Speaker 1: released in the United States and seventy four, Lee flew

746
00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:14,799
Speaker 1: to the States on his own dime to promote it

747
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:17,479
Speaker 1: as well, and would just appear on basically any show

748
00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:21,160
Speaker 1: to talk about the Wickerman. That just filled me with happiness.

749
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:23,480
Speaker 1: That's gorgeous, and as we've been saying, it is a

750
00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:26,720
Speaker 1: delightful performance from Lee, which I think is saying something

751
00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:30,000
Speaker 1: because while Lee is always a fine screen presence, he

752
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:33,920
Speaker 1: almost always plays a rather grim and serious character, often

753
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:37,239
Speaker 1: with a malicious glint in his eyes, and for much

754
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:40,040
Speaker 1: of the film, the Lord Summerle that we experience is

755
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:44,360
Speaker 1: a joyous, care free figure. I swear Lee, who is

756
00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:47,480
Speaker 1: I think around fifty at the time, really feels younger

757
00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:51,239
Speaker 1: and certainly more energetic in this role than anything else

758
00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:54,960
Speaker 1: I've seen him in from before or after this picture.

759
00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,759
Speaker 3: He has the energy of a twenty two year old

760
00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:02,959
Speaker 3: hippie who does clown school. Yes, yeah, he's just he's

761
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:07,279
Speaker 3: just magical. In the movie, he's bursting with positive intensity,

762
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:11,759
Speaker 3: occasionally turning threatening and then just turning very friendly and

763
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:15,319
Speaker 3: charming again. He has, in fact, he has kind of

764
00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:17,799
Speaker 3: the quality of a pagan god. You can you can

765
00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:23,920
Speaker 3: feel him almost becoming superhumanly enlarged and striding over the fields,

766
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:26,719
Speaker 3: beaming down sunshine at everyone around him.

767
00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:30,520
Speaker 1: That's good, that's good. Yeah. So these are our two

768
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:33,440
Speaker 1: main characters, I guess in the film, but we have

769
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:37,040
Speaker 1: a number of very interesting supporting roles, starting with I

770
00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:42,000
Speaker 1: believe we mentioned her already, but Diane Cilento plays Miss Rose,

771
00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:45,359
Speaker 1: who I believe is the town teacher. She's she's teaching

772
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:46,800
Speaker 1: to I don't know what other like a lot of

773
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:48,440
Speaker 1: it's a small town, so a lot of people have

774
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:49,440
Speaker 1: multiple roles here.

775
00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:52,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, double double booked on a lot of occupations in

776
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:52,799
Speaker 3: the town.

777
00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:53,399
Speaker 1: Uh.

778
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:56,880
Speaker 3: Miss miss Rose is a great character in Diane Cilento

779
00:41:57,040 --> 00:42:00,760
Speaker 3: is excellent in this role. I mean, I'm gonna sound

780
00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:03,680
Speaker 3: repetitive with the cast because everybody's so good, but she

781
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:09,360
Speaker 3: is great. She has such a gracious, almost flowing water

782
00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:14,280
Speaker 3: kind of way of reacting to Sergeant Howie's aggressive inquiry.

783
00:42:14,520 --> 00:42:19,680
Speaker 3: You know, she's at many points she is resisting his investigation,

784
00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:24,400
Speaker 3: but it's just hard to feel like she could possibly

785
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:25,440
Speaker 3: be a bad guy.

786
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:25,600
Speaker 4: You know.

787
00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:28,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, she like a number of the other townsfolk

788
00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:30,879
Speaker 1: that we meet, they're they're very likable and they seem

789
00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:34,520
Speaker 1: very sensible in the face of his investigation.

790
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:41,600
Speaker 3: Yes, they're always making good points against yeah so.

791
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:46,719
Speaker 1: Cialento lived nineteen thirty two through twenty eleven Australian born

792
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:49,200
Speaker 1: actress of stage and screen who is nominated for an

793
00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:52,759
Speaker 1: Oscar in nineteen sixty four for her supporting performance in

794
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:56,080
Speaker 1: the movie Tom Jones. Her other credits include sixty five's

795
00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:59,520
Speaker 1: The Agony and the Ecstasy, nineteen sixty seven Zombre, and

796
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:04,680
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two ZPG. She married Anthony Schaeffer in nineteen

797
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:07,680
Speaker 1: eighty five, and from her previous marriage, she was the

798
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:10,880
Speaker 1: mother of Jason Connery. I've read that she was a

799
00:43:10,920 --> 00:43:13,920
Speaker 1: self professed white witch at the time of the Wickerman's

800
00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 1: filming and was personally involved in various details, including the

801
00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:20,680
Speaker 1: fire dance. And at one point there's a tarot card

802
00:43:20,680 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 1: on the ceiling, and I believe I've read that she

803
00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:25,560
Speaker 1: drew that or painted it.

804
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:35,120
Speaker 4: Oh cool. Oh.

805
00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:39,120
Speaker 1: And then of course there's the innkeeper's daughter, Willow played

806
00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:40,400
Speaker 1: by Britt Eklund.

807
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:43,879
Speaker 3: Also great britt Ekland gets a full on musical number

808
00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:46,439
Speaker 3: where she like turns and looks into the camera while

809
00:43:46,480 --> 00:43:47,920
Speaker 3: she's singing Yes.

810
00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:52,920
Speaker 1: Yeah. Born nineteen forty two, Swedish actress, model, and singer,

811
00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:57,680
Speaker 1: who certainly delivers charisma and sex appeal for several key

812
00:43:57,719 --> 00:44:01,400
Speaker 1: scenes in the film, a character who, in Lord Somerle's words,

813
00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:05,360
Speaker 1: is the embodiment of the Goddess of Love. Ecklund was

814
00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:08,640
Speaker 1: a rather major celebrity of the day and appeared in

815
00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:12,239
Speaker 1: some notable early nineteen seventies films, including seventy ones Get Carter,

816
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:15,840
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy Two's Asylum, and nineteen seventy four Is the

817
00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:18,560
Speaker 1: Man with the Golden Gun, which of course also featured

818
00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:19,279
Speaker 1: Christopher Lee.

819
00:44:19,560 --> 00:44:22,279
Speaker 3: Sometimes I watched that movie as a kind of it's

820
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:26,320
Speaker 3: a James Bond movie. Yes, probably one of the worst

821
00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:30,319
Speaker 3: James Bond movies. It's not very good, but as I

822
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:32,600
Speaker 3: say about some movies on here, it's not very good,

823
00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:39,560
Speaker 3: but it's a good time. It's just a nice little

824
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:42,799
Speaker 3: wicker Man reunion to watch every now and then. I

825
00:44:42,840 --> 00:44:45,160
Speaker 3: seem to recall the character she plays in The Man

826
00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:47,839
Speaker 3: with the Golden Gun is supposed to be kind of

827
00:44:48,080 --> 00:44:51,799
Speaker 3: not very smart, like she's kind of always like clumsily.

828
00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:54,959
Speaker 3: She's like a spy, but she's constantly like whoops, getting

829
00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:58,360
Speaker 3: bumped into the trunk of a car. And yeah, I

830
00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:00,520
Speaker 3: don't know, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but

831
00:45:00,920 --> 00:45:03,319
Speaker 3: it's not a great movie. But in the Wickerman, she

832
00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:05,160
Speaker 3: is not dumb. She's rather crafty.

833
00:45:05,239 --> 00:45:09,000
Speaker 1: Actually yeah she uh, you know, she behaves almost like

834
00:45:09,040 --> 00:45:13,400
Speaker 1: a like a siren character. Yeah, and she has at

835
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:17,680
Speaker 1: least one key scene that features nudity, and I want

836
00:45:17,719 --> 00:45:20,440
Speaker 1: to want to highlight that. A lot of times, you know,

837
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:23,160
Speaker 1: the nudity and films of this era and certainly of

838
00:45:23,239 --> 00:45:26,680
Speaker 1: the genre or are more about pure titillation. And you know,

839
00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:29,719
Speaker 1: not to say that these scenes are removed of titillation,

840
00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:34,200
Speaker 1: but but there's a there's a lot more going on here,

841
00:45:34,239 --> 00:45:36,240
Speaker 1: and I feel like they're they're overall very well crafted.

842
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:39,319
Speaker 1: In the extra that I featured, Hardy talks a little

843
00:45:39,360 --> 00:45:43,200
Speaker 1: bit about the key Brett Acklin nude scene and how

844
00:45:43,200 --> 00:45:44,840
Speaker 1: they shot it and all, and there's some there are

845
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:47,440
Speaker 1: actually some fun stories about that where they actually had

846
00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:49,400
Speaker 1: to send off for someone to come in to be

847
00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:53,600
Speaker 1: the butt double for that scene they had to get

848
00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:58,839
Speaker 1: somebody from a like a nightclub in Scotland. Oh, that's funny, but.

849
00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:01,319
Speaker 3: We should say we've been speaking about them like they

850
00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:04,320
Speaker 3: might be two different scenes. The nude scene is also

851
00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:08,440
Speaker 3: the musical number Yes, yes, yeah, and it is the

852
00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:11,720
Speaker 3: scene where britt Eklund is really dedicated to making Sergeant

853
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:12,800
Speaker 3: Howie starts sinning.

854
00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:15,920
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, he's in another room. But this the end

855
00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:19,640
Speaker 1: has very thin walls and you can hear everything, like

856
00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:24,839
Speaker 1: the people downstairs can hear everything. Howid he can hear everything? Yeah,

857
00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:27,960
Speaker 1: we'll get into that when we talk about the specific scene,

858
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:31,640
Speaker 1: all right. And then rounding out the our trio of

859
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:35,280
Speaker 1: blonde seventy starlets in this picture, we have Ingrid Pitt

860
00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:39,200
Speaker 1: playing the librarian. She lived nineteen thirty seven through twenty ten.

861
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:43,400
Speaker 1: Something of a Hammer horror regular, the Polish born actress,

862
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:46,479
Speaker 1: who started out on the East Berlin stage, is best

863
00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:48,879
Speaker 1: known for roles in such films as nineteen sixty eights

864
00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:53,000
Speaker 1: Where Eagles Dare, nineteen seventies The Vampire Lovers, and nineteen

865
00:46:53,040 --> 00:46:56,600
Speaker 1: seventy one's Countessed Dracula. Her other credits include episodes of

866
00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:59,120
Speaker 1: Doctor Who nineteen seventy one is the House that Dripped

867
00:46:59,120 --> 00:47:02,960
Speaker 1: the Blood and eineteen eighty five's Transmutations. We'll have more

868
00:47:02,960 --> 00:47:05,719
Speaker 1: to say about her when we talk about the specific

869
00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:09,080
Speaker 1: one of the main scenes that features the librarian.

870
00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:12,960
Speaker 3: Yes, now you mentioned the character of Willow McGregor. That's

871
00:47:12,960 --> 00:47:16,120
Speaker 3: britt Eklund. But we also meet her father, the Innkeeper

872
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:20,000
Speaker 3: aka the Landlord, who is an extremely odd critter.

873
00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:24,040
Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. Played by Lindsey Kemp, who lived nineteen thirty

874
00:47:24,080 --> 00:47:28,920
Speaker 1: eight through twenty eighteen. He was a British dancer, actor, teacher,

875
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:33,680
Speaker 1: mime artist and choreographer. His other acting credits include seventy

876
00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:37,520
Speaker 1: two Savage Messiah, a nineteen eighty four TV adaptation of

877
00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:40,279
Speaker 1: A Midsummer Night's Dream in which he plays Puck, and

878
00:47:40,440 --> 00:47:45,200
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight's Velvet gold Mine. Very interesting character in

879
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:47,720
Speaker 1: his own right. He was a mentor to both David

880
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:49,320
Speaker 1: Bowie and Kate Bush.

881
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:52,040
Speaker 3: Hats off to him. I love every minute he's on screen.

882
00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:56,520
Speaker 3: He's got this wild kind of raised eyebrow that's just

883
00:47:56,640 --> 00:47:59,680
Speaker 3: always like, oh, you know you're a policeman, are you.

884
00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:05,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's great. There is always that kind of like

885
00:48:05,280 --> 00:48:10,359
Speaker 1: a sly judgment taking place with him. Yeah, wonderful little role.

886
00:48:11,239 --> 00:48:14,200
Speaker 1: I mean all the so all the towns folk are great,

887
00:48:14,200 --> 00:48:17,520
Speaker 1: the non actors, the musicians, and then the various character

888
00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:20,439
Speaker 1: actors here and there. One that really stands out though,

889
00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:24,960
Speaker 1: is Aubrey Morris playing the old gardener Slash the grave Digger. Yes,

890
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:29,160
Speaker 1: a great British character actor whose supporting roles include films

891
00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:33,000
Speaker 1: like seventy one's a Clockwork, Orange Blood from the Mummy's

892
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:37,600
Speaker 1: Tomb and Lystomania, also nineteen eighty five's Life Force and

893
00:48:37,719 --> 00:48:40,879
Speaker 1: The She Creature from two thousand and one. I would

894
00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:42,960
Speaker 1: say one of the most memorable locals we meet in

895
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:43,400
Speaker 1: the film.

896
00:48:43,560 --> 00:48:47,160
Speaker 3: He has a fantastic moment where Sergeant Howie asks him

897
00:48:47,239 --> 00:48:51,840
Speaker 3: where their minister is and he just says minister and

898
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:54,040
Speaker 3: starts laughing and walks away.

899
00:48:55,160 --> 00:48:57,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's really good. He we meet him in the graveyard,

900
00:48:57,320 --> 00:48:59,200
Speaker 1: a great scene of the graveyard. Well we'll probably get

901
00:48:59,200 --> 00:49:01,560
Speaker 1: to but yeah. He lived nineteen twenty six through twenty fifteen.

902
00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:05,759
Speaker 1: All right, Now, one more local man that I want

903
00:49:05,760 --> 00:49:08,600
Speaker 1: to mention here there's a fishmonger character, and I'm not

904
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:12,680
Speaker 1: sure I one hundred percent remember the fishmonger. Do you

905
00:49:12,719 --> 00:49:13,759
Speaker 1: remember the fishmonger?

906
00:49:14,239 --> 00:49:14,680
Speaker 4: I don't.

907
00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:17,480
Speaker 1: It's possible his scene was even cut. I'm not certain.

908
00:49:17,880 --> 00:49:19,840
Speaker 1: If nothing else, we may see him in the background.

909
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:24,040
Speaker 3: There are a lot of rosy cheeked, gray haired, partly

910
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:27,080
Speaker 3: balding old men who stand around in the background of

911
00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:29,399
Speaker 3: many scenes at the pub, at the harbor and so

912
00:49:29,480 --> 00:49:33,160
Speaker 3: forth at the May Day celebration and don't really get

913
00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:35,239
Speaker 3: in many individual moments.

914
00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:35,359
Speaker 4: Of their own.

915
00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:38,920
Speaker 3: But it's a but overall, it's a big community ensemble,

916
00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:40,719
Speaker 3: and so there are a lot of characters you're not

917
00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:42,239
Speaker 3: going to remember very specifically.

918
00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:45,480
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, the Fishmonger is played by John Young, who

919
00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:49,480
Speaker 1: lived nineteen sixteen through nineteen ninety six. And this is

920
00:49:49,480 --> 00:49:51,920
Speaker 1: the guy who played the modern day historian that A

921
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:55,239
Speaker 1: Night murders in nineteen seventy five's Monty Python and the

922
00:49:55,239 --> 00:49:55,840
Speaker 1: Holy Grail.

923
00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:57,799
Speaker 4: Oh I remember him.

924
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:03,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, he shows up like it's, you know, a

925
00:50:03,080 --> 00:50:06,799
Speaker 1: television show about medieval history, and then at one point

926
00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:10,000
Speaker 1: a Night rides past him and slays him with a sword. Yeah,

927
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:13,440
Speaker 1: it's a good gag. Yeah, as John Young. He was

928
00:50:13,480 --> 00:50:16,359
Speaker 1: also in a Life of Brian in seventy nine and

929
00:50:16,719 --> 00:50:18,880
Speaker 1: eighty one's Chariots of Fire. Oh, and he's also in

930
00:50:18,960 --> 00:50:21,560
Speaker 1: Time Badmit's all right, and then coming back around to

931
00:50:21,600 --> 00:50:25,800
Speaker 1: the music, Paul Giovanni was the composer. He lived nineteen

932
00:50:25,880 --> 00:50:29,520
Speaker 1: thirty three through nineteen ninety and yeah, there's a lot

933
00:50:29,560 --> 00:50:31,800
Speaker 1: where we're going to continue to say about the music

934
00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:34,480
Speaker 1: of The wicker Man, a film that makes terrific use

935
00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:38,560
Speaker 1: of digetic music, contributing heavily to the uneasiness of the

936
00:50:38,600 --> 00:50:41,799
Speaker 1: film and also creating that feeling of uncertainty regarding what

937
00:50:41,960 --> 00:50:45,800
Speaker 1: sort of musical film are we watching. Paul Giovanni was

938
00:50:45,840 --> 00:50:50,080
Speaker 1: an American playwright, actor, director, a singer and musician, and

939
00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:52,440
Speaker 1: we see him in the film as well the man

940
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:56,080
Speaker 1: singing gently Johnny and the green Man in Oh.

941
00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:59,640
Speaker 3: I didn't realize that was Paul Giovanni. He's a handsome fella.

942
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:00,800
Speaker 3: He's a good singer.

943
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:04,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he also sings on corn Riggs and Landlord's daughter.

944
00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:07,800
Speaker 1: Giovanni wrote the music and much of the lyrics. I

945
00:51:07,800 --> 00:51:12,400
Speaker 1: think Cornriggs is adapted from a Robert Burns song. But

946
00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:16,760
Speaker 1: this was his only musical film credit, but his plays

947
00:51:16,800 --> 00:51:20,120
Speaker 1: include The Crucifer of Blood, which was adapted in nineteen

948
00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:23,839
Speaker 1: ninety one for a TV film starring Charlton Heston as

949
00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:27,240
Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes. What, Yeah, and.

950
00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:30,399
Speaker 3: That is one of the weirdest pieces of casting I've

951
00:51:30,440 --> 00:51:31,200
Speaker 3: ever heard of.

952
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:35,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've never seen it. I'm only vaguely aware of it,

953
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:38,080
Speaker 1: and my initial reaction is much like when I hear

954
00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:42,080
Speaker 1: about anybody playing Sherlock Holmes. I'm my personal response is

955
00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:46,400
Speaker 1: you're not Sherlock Holmes. Jeremy Brett is Sherlock Holmes. But

956
00:51:46,480 --> 00:51:49,240
Speaker 1: then I read this is crazy. Just learned this literally today.

957
00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:54,040
Speaker 1: That ten years earlier before this TV adaptation of The

958
00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:57,319
Speaker 1: Crucifer of Blood, Heston played the role in an LA

959
00:51:57,440 --> 00:52:01,800
Speaker 1: stage adaptation of the play, and Jeremy Brett played Watson.

960
00:52:02,239 --> 00:52:02,520
Speaker 4: What.

961
00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:05,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't seem right, It doesn't seem like it

962
00:52:05,080 --> 00:52:07,279
Speaker 1: should be real. It seems like this is some sort

963
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:11,000
Speaker 1: of awful joke being played on me personally. But yeah,

964
00:52:11,040 --> 00:52:13,000
Speaker 1: I'm sure Jimmy Brett was a fine Watson.

965
00:52:13,360 --> 00:52:14,440
Speaker 4: I gotta look this up.

966
00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:17,200
Speaker 3: I just I am not even finding myself able to

967
00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:20,000
Speaker 3: imagine Charlton Eston as Sherlock Holmes.

968
00:52:20,040 --> 00:52:22,760
Speaker 4: That is weird. That is deep weird.

969
00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:25,560
Speaker 1: I don't have any other information on it. I don't

970
00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:28,640
Speaker 1: know if he attempts a British accent or not, but

971
00:52:28,800 --> 00:52:32,759
Speaker 1: it definitely happened. It happened more than once. Now it's

972
00:52:32,760 --> 00:52:36,000
Speaker 1: not just Paul Giovanni on the music here. The collaborating

973
00:52:36,120 --> 00:52:41,239
Speaker 1: musicians responsible are credited as Magnet, headed up by composer

974
00:52:41,360 --> 00:52:44,600
Speaker 1: Gary Carpenter born nineteen fifty one, who is also associate

975
00:52:44,880 --> 00:52:48,080
Speaker 1: music director on the film. I watched a great interview

976
00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:51,479
Speaker 1: with Carpenter about the film's music and the winding path

977
00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:56,160
Speaker 1: the soundtrack took to actual physical release. All very insightful

978
00:52:56,239 --> 00:52:58,560
Speaker 1: and full of lots of technical details if you're interested

979
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:02,440
Speaker 1: in the recording details in all but one observation he

980
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:04,600
Speaker 1: made that I thought was interesting is he compares the

981
00:53:04,719 --> 00:53:08,600
Speaker 1: raw recording style of the film's music is being very

982
00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:11,800
Speaker 1: similar to later trends and just music recording in general.

983
00:53:12,160 --> 00:53:15,480
Speaker 1: So we have all these scenes where in the picture

984
00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:21,080
Speaker 1: musicians characters that our musicians are creating the music within

985
00:53:21,120 --> 00:53:23,520
Speaker 1: the scene. But of course all of that is also

986
00:53:23,719 --> 00:53:27,680
Speaker 1: recorded separately in a sound studio to be used as

987
00:53:27,719 --> 00:53:31,440
Speaker 1: part of, you know, to create the film score and soundtrack.

988
00:53:32,040 --> 00:53:35,360
Speaker 1: But it's the same people. So you have this interesting

989
00:53:35,360 --> 00:53:37,520
Speaker 1: connection there, and that's I think one of the reasons

990
00:53:37,560 --> 00:53:39,799
Speaker 1: that they said, well, we're going to record this in

991
00:53:39,840 --> 00:53:41,799
Speaker 1: such a way that there is a rawness to it

992
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:46,480
Speaker 1: that he kept talking about, how you can hear like

993
00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:50,239
Speaker 1: like some of the physical details of the instrumentation. You know,

994
00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:52,360
Speaker 1: I guess to sort of place you in the scene

995
00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:57,080
Speaker 1: with the music creation and not just experiencing the results

996
00:53:57,320 --> 00:53:58,399
Speaker 1: of the musical act.

997
00:53:58,800 --> 00:53:59,280
Speaker 4: Interesting.

998
00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:02,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, so once again, Yeah, the music is a very

999
00:54:02,120 --> 00:54:04,480
Speaker 1: important part of The wicker Man and is on the

1000
00:54:04,480 --> 00:54:07,160
Speaker 1: whole terrific. I should also add that the score is

1001
00:54:07,200 --> 00:54:10,120
Speaker 1: widely available. You can buy it, you can stream it,

1002
00:54:10,400 --> 00:54:12,400
Speaker 1: so after you've watched The wicker Man, you can do

1003
00:54:12,480 --> 00:54:16,160
Speaker 1: what I've been doing and just run the score and

1004
00:54:16,200 --> 00:54:19,280
Speaker 1: the soundtrack over and over again in your headphones.

1005
00:54:19,040 --> 00:54:22,120
Speaker 3: And you can wander around your house singing corn rigs

1006
00:54:22,080 --> 00:54:23,760
Speaker 3: and bars.

1007
00:54:24,360 --> 00:54:28,719
Speaker 1: Yes, oh, we do that so much. All right, now,

1008
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:32,000
Speaker 1: this is the point at which we would normally transition

1009
00:54:32,080 --> 00:54:35,560
Speaker 1: into discussing the plot. But I believe, given that we

1010
00:54:35,640 --> 00:54:38,440
Speaker 1: have so much more to talk about, and we're going

1011
00:54:38,520 --> 00:54:41,839
Speaker 1: to go ahead and cut this episode and we will

1012
00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:45,759
Speaker 1: continue this in a part two in the next installment

1013
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:46,760
Speaker 1: of Weird House Cinema.

1014
00:54:46,800 --> 00:54:48,960
Speaker 3: That's right, gives you plenty of time to watch the

1015
00:54:49,040 --> 00:54:50,960
Speaker 3: movie if you did not heed our warning at the

1016
00:54:51,000 --> 00:54:52,120
Speaker 3: very beginning and go watch it.

1017
00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:54,479
Speaker 1: Then that's right. We haven't done this with many films.

1018
00:54:54,520 --> 00:54:56,960
Speaker 1: We were talking about this before we rolled here. We

1019
00:54:57,000 --> 00:54:59,279
Speaker 1: did it with Highlander two, and we did it with

1020
00:55:00,040 --> 00:55:03,120
Speaker 1: inch Is Doune. So uh uh yeah, you know that's

1021
00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:05,319
Speaker 1: this is a film that I think checks off all

1022
00:55:05,360 --> 00:55:08,600
Speaker 1: the boxes. It's a big film. There's a lot that's

1023
00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:10,200
Speaker 1: been said about it. There's a lot that we have

1024
00:55:10,280 --> 00:55:12,759
Speaker 1: to say about it. I mean, I feel like I

1025
00:55:12,760 --> 00:55:15,640
Speaker 1: could spend a good half hour just talking about key

1026
00:55:15,719 --> 00:55:18,839
Speaker 1: scenes such as the scene all the scenes that take

1027
00:55:18,880 --> 00:55:21,080
Speaker 1: place in the candy store slash post office.

1028
00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:23,719
Speaker 3: Oh well, okay, then this is something we should do

1029
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:26,560
Speaker 3: before we wrap up today's episode. What is your top

1030
00:55:26,800 --> 00:55:31,400
Speaker 3: confection from the post office slash slash candy store in

1031
00:55:31,600 --> 00:55:32,440
Speaker 3: summer Isle Town.

1032
00:55:32,719 --> 00:55:34,640
Speaker 1: Oh, I mean there's so much. I mean, I love

1033
00:55:34,680 --> 00:55:36,239
Speaker 1: this shop. This is one of those shops that feels

1034
00:55:36,280 --> 00:55:39,680
Speaker 1: absolutely real. You know, I imagine they've taken any they took.

1035
00:55:39,880 --> 00:55:43,200
Speaker 1: They took an existing shop and in Scotland and uh

1036
00:55:43,560 --> 00:55:45,839
Speaker 1: on one on the Loton location and dressed it up

1037
00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:48,600
Speaker 1: and it's just filled with all of these uh you know,

1038
00:55:48,680 --> 00:55:52,560
Speaker 1: strange pagan treats. Uh and you're.

1039
00:55:52,440 --> 00:55:55,720
Speaker 3: Saying they would really feed these nightmare images to children.

1040
00:55:56,400 --> 00:55:59,320
Speaker 1: I guess. So you know within you know, in the

1041
00:55:59,600 --> 00:56:02,759
Speaker 1: fictional world of the film, Yes, I mean there are

1042
00:56:02,800 --> 00:56:06,439
Speaker 1: several key standouts that there is. Of course, the baby cake,

1043
00:56:06,760 --> 00:56:10,200
Speaker 1: the kid cake. That's that's an easy favorite, I think

1044
00:56:10,239 --> 00:56:13,319
Speaker 1: for anybody. But the closer you look, there are all

1045
00:56:13,320 --> 00:56:16,680
Speaker 1: these other little details. There are little pink elephants. I

1046
00:56:16,680 --> 00:56:20,640
Speaker 1: don't know what the pink elephants represent within their their

1047
00:56:20,719 --> 00:56:24,000
Speaker 1: their rights and observations, but they are there in their

1048
00:56:24,080 --> 00:56:28,480
Speaker 1: numerous ones. There are some wonderful frogs or toads. Those

1049
00:56:28,560 --> 00:56:29,800
Speaker 1: were my wife's favorites.

1050
00:56:30,080 --> 00:56:33,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, the chocolate rams heads with littless yellow eyes.

1051
00:56:33,960 --> 00:56:36,400
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, there are a number of hairs as well,

1052
00:56:37,440 --> 00:56:40,400
Speaker 1: and some other strange babies that are are in the

1053
00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:43,480
Speaker 1: shop in addition to this. So I don't know, I've

1054
00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:46,200
Speaker 1: got to go with the kid cake or the elephants.

1055
00:56:46,600 --> 00:56:48,359
Speaker 1: Probably the kid cake. It's the kid cake.

1056
00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:51,440
Speaker 3: How about the bride with the wreath of pink flowers

1057
00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:54,600
Speaker 3: around her head with the eyes pinned open like Alex

1058
00:56:54,680 --> 00:56:55,680
Speaker 3: and clockwork orange.

1059
00:56:56,719 --> 00:56:57,799
Speaker 1: That's good too.

1060
00:56:58,080 --> 00:57:00,759
Speaker 4: What are they showing that cake? What does she have

1061
00:57:00,840 --> 00:57:03,480
Speaker 4: to watch? Are they playing the lud Big band.

1062
00:57:04,200 --> 00:57:06,719
Speaker 1: I think the kid cake has maybe some I'd have

1063
00:57:06,760 --> 00:57:08,719
Speaker 1: to watch the scene again, but based on a still

1064
00:57:08,760 --> 00:57:10,880
Speaker 1: that I pulled up, I think there's like maybe a

1065
00:57:10,960 --> 00:57:14,200
Speaker 1: jelly filling to it, which you know is fitting.

1066
00:57:14,400 --> 00:57:16,600
Speaker 3: Oh I see that. Yeah, you see them cut it

1067
00:57:16,640 --> 00:57:17,920
Speaker 3: open and it's kind of spilling out.

1068
00:57:17,960 --> 00:57:18,160
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1069
00:57:18,200 --> 00:57:20,720
Speaker 1: Maybe it's like a jam roll jamcake sort of a situation.

1070
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:21,360
Speaker 1: I don't know.

1071
00:57:21,680 --> 00:57:21,880
Speaker 4: Now.

1072
00:57:21,920 --> 00:57:26,120
Speaker 3: Something that's really confusing is that in may Morrison's post

1073
00:57:26,200 --> 00:57:31,320
Speaker 3: office slash sweet shop, they serve green frog cakes that

1074
00:57:31,400 --> 00:57:33,840
Speaker 3: you eat. But we also see in the same shop

1075
00:57:33,920 --> 00:57:36,440
Speaker 3: later she's putting a live green frog in a kid's

1076
00:57:36,440 --> 00:57:38,240
Speaker 3: mouth to cure her of a sore throat.

1077
00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:43,640
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, but then that's not candy, that's medicinal. But

1078
00:57:43,680 --> 00:57:46,480
Speaker 1: then she gets a hard candy afterwards as a treat

1079
00:57:46,560 --> 00:57:48,240
Speaker 1: to sort of like, you know, that's right, to get

1080
00:57:48,320 --> 00:57:49,560
Speaker 1: rid of the taste of the frog.

1081
00:57:50,120 --> 00:57:50,520
Speaker 4: All right.

1082
00:57:50,600 --> 00:57:53,600
Speaker 3: Well, to learn more about the sweet Shop and the

1083
00:57:53,640 --> 00:57:57,480
Speaker 3: rest of what Samuraile has to offer to the adventurous tourists,

1084
00:57:57,520 --> 00:58:00,000
Speaker 3: you'll have to come back next week for part two

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Speaker 3: two of our series on the Wickerman.

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Speaker 1: That's right, Keep your appointment with the Wickerman next week

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Speaker 1: on Weird House Cinema, but in the meantime, we would

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Speaker 1: love to hear from you if you already have thoughts

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Speaker 1: to share about the Wickerman wright in we'd love to

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00:58:16,320 --> 00:58:19,040
Speaker 1: hear from you. Let's see, we should remind you that

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Speaker 1: if you want to follow Weird House Cinema online, we

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00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:24,200
Speaker 1: have a letterboxed account. You can find us there. Our

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00:58:24,280 --> 00:58:26,280
Speaker 1: username is Weirdhouse. We have a nice list of all

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Speaker 1: the movies we've covered over the years, sometimes a peek

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00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:32,240
Speaker 1: ahead at what's coming up next, and you can also

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00:58:32,280 --> 00:58:36,560
Speaker 1: follow us on Instagram at stbym podcast. We're on some

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00:58:36,600 --> 00:58:39,160
Speaker 1: other social networks as well, but those are the main

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00:58:39,200 --> 00:58:40,200
Speaker 1: places to follow us.

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Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer, JJ Posway.

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Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

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00:58:46,240 --> 00:58:49,000
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

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00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:51,160
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

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00:58:51,320 --> 00:58:54,120
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact stuff to Blow your

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00:58:54,160 --> 00:59:01,800
Speaker 3: Mind dot com.

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00:59:01,960 --> 00:59:04,920
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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00:59:05,000 --> 00:59:08,840
Speaker 2: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.