Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb and.
Speaker 3: This is Joe McCormick. And today, as we are recording this,
Speaker 3: it is May first, the sacred festival of May Day,
Speaker 3: and so we are going to be talking, in accordance
Speaker 3: with the season, about the classic nineteen seventy three British
Speaker 3: film The wicker Man, which is usually usually grouped under
Speaker 3: a genre people call full corror. Maybe we can quibble
Speaker 3: in this episode about whether that title should or should
Speaker 3: not be applied. And also note though we rarely do
Speaker 3: this on Weird House Cinema, usually we keep it one
Speaker 3: movie per episode. This is one we think we're going
Speaker 3: to have to split into two parts because we love
Speaker 3: the Wickerman and we're going to have a lot to
Speaker 3: say about it. The only two other movies we've ever
Speaker 3: done this with before were David Lynch's Doom and Highlander
Speaker 3: to the Quickening, So putting the Wickerman in there, there
Speaker 3: is cohesion to this trinity.
Speaker 2: Yes, these are three films that are often associated with
Speaker 2: each other, but I do agree like there's a lot
Speaker 2: to say about the Wickerman. We're probably going to go
Speaker 2: on and on a bit in a good way, so
Speaker 2: it's very possible we'll split here.
Speaker 3: So I'm very excited because The Wickerman is one of
Speaker 3: my personal favorite movies. In fact, it's a mutual favorite
Speaker 3: in our house. It's also one of my wife Rachel's
Speaker 3: all time favorite movies. So we've got a lot of
Speaker 3: like Wickerman merch in our house. I don't know if
Speaker 3: you've seen any of that stuff, Rob, but we've got
Speaker 3: like a Wickerman night light, and.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I don't think I remember seeing any of this,
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 3: It's great. Well, it lights up behind the wicker glows.
Speaker 3: You know, there's kind of an orange glow behind a
Speaker 3: Wickerman silhouette.
Speaker 2: I guess.
Speaker 3: Actually, before we go on to any further detail, there
Speaker 3: is something I definitely want to say. So in every
Speaker 3: Weird House Cinema episode we end up discussing the plot
Speaker 3: of the movie that recovering in some detail. So it's
Speaker 3: always the case that you should watch the movie first
Speaker 3: if you don't want to have anything spoiled. But if
Speaker 3: you've never seen The Wickerman from nineteen seventy three, this
Speaker 3: in particular is really a film I would recommend going
Speaker 3: into knowing as little as possible. Obviously, it gets into
Speaker 3: some horror territory, so if you're sensitive to horror themes,
Speaker 3: you can look things up ahead of time. But otherwise,
Speaker 3: if you have a general appetite for horror, I would strongly,
Speaker 3: strongly encourage you to not even glance at a plot summary,
Speaker 3: not listen to any more of this episode. Just go
Speaker 3: ahead and watch it.
Speaker 2: But then come back and listen to this. Yes.
Speaker 3: Yes, So the first time I saw it, a friend
Speaker 3: of mine when I was in college showed it to
Speaker 3: me without telling telling me anything ahead of time. I'm
Speaker 3: just really grateful I got to experience it that way.
Speaker 3: The Wickerman is such an unusual and surprising film. It
Speaker 3: is full of unexpected humor and horror and delight and despair,
Speaker 3: and even now, like fifty years later, in a world
Speaker 3: where a lot of movies you may have already seen
Speaker 3: have been influenced by The Wickerman. If you haven't seen
Speaker 3: it before and you don't know everything ahead of time,
Speaker 3: I think it will keep you very intrigued and puzzled
Speaker 3: in the best possible way.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, It's a film that really stands on its own,
Speaker 2: even though it is part of the folk car subgenre
Speaker 2: and is very influential over the full car subgenre. I
Speaker 2: think that the big three that are often referred to
Speaker 2: or sixty eights, whitch Finder General, seventy one's Blood on
Speaker 2: Satan's Claw, and then of course seventy three is The
Speaker 2: wicker Man. But at the same time, nothing else is
Speaker 2: really like The wicker Man, even other movies that have
Speaker 2: the name the wicker Man. There are remakes of the
Speaker 2: movie we're talking about here today are nothing like it.
Speaker 3: We might have to get into the remake in part
Speaker 3: two here. I think there really just is no other
Speaker 3: movie like it is its own genre and perhaps still
Speaker 3: the only movie in that genre. But anyway, if you
Speaker 3: haven't seen The Wickerman yet and you want to pause
Speaker 3: here and go watch it so you can, you can
Speaker 3: see it unspoiled, and then come back, we will give
Speaker 3: you a little music break, you know.
Speaker 2: Looking back, I think I saw The wicker Man for
Speaker 2: the first time, probably like on I think it was
Speaker 2: A and E. So I saw it on cable. Didn't
Speaker 2: know what I was getting into, but it instantly loved
Speaker 2: it and at some point decided, well I need to
Speaker 2: own this forever. I'm going to buy a special edition
Speaker 2: VHS of The wicker Man in a big clamshell case. Yes,
Speaker 2: and I did, and of course it was replaced by
Speaker 2: DVDs just you know a.
Speaker 3: Few years later. Did you have the version with the
Speaker 3: Wooden Box?
Speaker 2: I did not, but I do remember seeing that at
Speaker 2: the movie store at the mall. They had all these
Speaker 2: special editions that one. I'm not sure if that was
Speaker 2: an Anchor Bay release, but this was a time period
Speaker 2: during which Anchor Bay was like the source for cool,
Speaker 2: you know, DVDVHS editions of whatever your favorite genre films
Speaker 2: happened to be.
Speaker 3: I have to mention again I've said this on the
Speaker 3: show before that someday we should come back and do
Speaker 3: a series on weird House Cinema that's just movies that
Speaker 3: had gimmick packaging, so like the release of the Wickerman
Speaker 3: and the Wooden Box that I'm sure a lot of
Speaker 3: people now just used to store whatever and who knows
Speaker 3: what they put in there. Yeah, but also like the
Speaker 3: Dead Pit with the light up eyes, and I'm sure
Speaker 3: we could get a whole list of them. Gimmick packaging
Speaker 3: on VHS tapes is just such a beautiful, beautiful thing,
Speaker 3: like almost nothing gives me more weird, gleeful nostalgia.
Speaker 2: I know a collector or two we could reach out
Speaker 2: to for that. But yeah, The Wickerman just such a
Speaker 2: great weird film, one that succeeds in creating not merely
Speaker 2: an uncanny horror movie, but a thought provoking cinematic enigma.
Speaker 2: So not to say you can't appreciate it purely as
Speaker 2: a horror film, purely as this you know, roller coaster
Speaker 2: ride and experience, but there's just a lot of rich
Speaker 2: texture to the film that leaves you to make your
Speaker 2: own interpretations. Like some of the big ones are of
Speaker 2: course regard like what is the film saying or not
Speaker 2: saying about pagan religious beliefs, about modern Christian faith, about
Speaker 2: human religion in general.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one of my favorite things about it is that
Speaker 3: the movie is saying a lot in a way, but
Speaker 3: it's not really reducible to a message. Maybe I would
Speaker 3: say it's not actually saying, it is singing, Like the
Speaker 3: story is just overflowing with meaning and has the kind
Speaker 3: of feeling of a commentary, but it is not really
Speaker 3: reducible to a message or a thesis. There's no point
Speaker 3: the movie really makes without out also sort of making
Speaker 3: the opposite point. Also, obviously, the subject matter means that
Speaker 3: the story is entangled with themes of religion, with religion, ritual,
Speaker 3: and faith, which are three different things, but also power
Speaker 3: and violence and the law. Some people talk about this
Speaker 3: movie like they think the point of it is Christianity
Speaker 3: is bad and Paganism was better. I've seen people talk
Speaker 3: about it like they think. It kind of means that.
Speaker 3: I feel like it would be hard to really say
Speaker 3: that's the point of the movie, if you think about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: At the same time, it is certainly not saying the
Speaker 3: opposite either. This movie is not Christian apologetics, and it
Speaker 3: was considered extremely offensive by many Christians when it came out,
Speaker 3: And so instead the religious themes are more it's just
Speaker 3: sort of a gardening project of religious themes. Just themes
Speaker 3: are sort of growing, and we're seeing how they grow
Speaker 3: and interact. It's like throwing Christianity and Celtic Paganism into
Speaker 3: a weird life flower bed together and seeing what pops
Speaker 3: up and how they twist around each other.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point, because I think it's
Speaker 2: it's easy to reduce the film, you know, sort of
Speaker 2: boil it down to Okay, here we have just a
Speaker 2: it's a folk car tale. It's a you know, exploitation
Speaker 2: your standard story about someone from the city or from civilization,
Speaker 2: like going into a rural or more rural part of
Speaker 2: their own country and invoke it and and encountering like,
Speaker 2: you know, scary locals there. You know, you see this
Speaker 2: a lot in fiction in general, but also in speculative
Speaker 2: fiction and weird fiction and horror. There's certainly an element
Speaker 2: of that here, not to say that it doesn't you know,
Speaker 2: dip its toes and wade into those waters. But like
Speaker 2: you said, it presents ideas on both sides. Like there's
Speaker 2: there's certainly plenty to admire in the idealistic, close to nature,
Speaker 2: sex positive society of Summer Isle, but we also come
Speaker 2: to see the dangers of their ideology. Likewise, our protagonist
Speaker 2: comes from a world of science and reason, and we
Speaker 2: like science and reason, and then obviously that seems to
Speaker 2: be a value that is celebrated within the context of
Speaker 2: the film as well. But we also see that his
Speaker 2: world as one of, at least in his own experience,
Speaker 2: one of sexual repression and deep seated unhappiness. And at
Speaker 2: the same time, these two worlds are linked in very
Speaker 2: fundamental ways, and the film does a great job of,
Speaker 2: sometimes very subtly, sometimes more overtly stitching those connections out.
Speaker 3: Which we pause really quickly and just say, like, what
Speaker 3: a one sentence plot summary is. Yeah, It's like. There
Speaker 3: is a remote Scottish island called Summer Isle, and a
Speaker 3: West Highland Police officer, a police detective named Sergeant Howie,
Speaker 3: has been summoned to the island via an anonymous letter
Speaker 3: saying that a girl on the island named Rowan Morrison
Speaker 3: has gone missing. So Sergeant Howie, he is, by the way,
Speaker 3: a devoutly religious Christian police inspector. He goes to the
Speaker 3: island by seaplane to look for the missing girl and
Speaker 3: to find out more about the note he received. So
Speaker 3: that's the setup. And then one of the main things
Speaker 3: we can say about the plot branching out from there
Speaker 3: is that Sergeant how he discovers the inhabitants of this
Speaker 3: remote Scottish island are not Christians, there in fact practicing
Speaker 3: what seems to be a variant of Celtic paganism, celebrating
Speaker 3: the old gods, the joyous old gods, and some of
Speaker 3: the modes of their celebration are quite distressing to him
Speaker 3: get the basics at least.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a good setup here.
Speaker 3: Another thing I want to mention about The Wickerman that
Speaker 3: I'd love and find really unique about the movie is
Speaker 3: the ambiguity of the main characters. So the protagonist of
Speaker 3: the film, the detective protagonist, Sergeant Howie, is simultaneously so
Speaker 3: sympathetic and so hateable. His mission is a good one.
Speaker 3: He is trying to invent instigate the case of a
Speaker 3: missing girl, and we see his dedication to his mission
Speaker 3: in a way that, like, you know, obviously, if a
Speaker 3: child goes missing, it is very good to want to
Speaker 3: solve that problem and look out for the welfare of
Speaker 3: the child, which we see he is genuinely invested in.
Speaker 3: We also see the setting of summerle from his perspective
Speaker 3: and are thus frustrated with the kind of squirreliness and
Speaker 3: untrustworthiness of the people he encounters while he's trying to
Speaker 3: solve this mystery. But also Sergeant Howie's personality and worldview
Speaker 3: are so off putting. He is arrogant, self righteous, puritanical, rude,
Speaker 3: and over and over again his behavior is just so
Speaker 3: misaligned with how it seems he should be conducting the investigation.
Speaker 3: He gets sidetracked from this genuinely noble quest in order
Speaker 3: to screech at people about saying the word penis and
Speaker 3: things like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like the scene where he disrupts the classroom.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, So this is not a type of protagonist
Speaker 3: I can think of many other examples of, and I
Speaker 3: find it such an interesting choice. He's kind of like
Speaker 3: a combination of like Hercule Poirot, but not as but
Speaker 3: without the virtuosity and detective work. I'll come back to
Speaker 3: that in a minute. But then also, I don't know,
Speaker 3: like one of the one of the judges in The
Speaker 3: Crucible or like the Witchfinder General. He's like a totally
Speaker 3: unsympathetically puritanical prude.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so do we like him, like.
Speaker 3: Not really sometimes not at all, But also we we
Speaker 3: sympathize with what he's doing, and we want him to
Speaker 3: find out what happened to the girl and solve the mystery,
Speaker 3: because we do repeatedly since that something treacherous is afoot
Speaker 3: and that Sergeant Howie might be the only person on
Speaker 3: this island who is actually trying to do what's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and that's that's important to realize and something
Speaker 2: that I think you can sometimes lose track of if
Speaker 2: you haven't seen the film in a long time, or rather,
Speaker 2: if you've seen the film and you know the general plot,
Speaker 2: you know what's gonna happen, and you're rewatching it. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's important to note like what he's not. Like, he's
Speaker 2: not a pure punchline, like he's not he's not a
Speaker 2: straight man to set up a joke. Yeah, and we'll
Speaker 2: talk more about the tone here in a second. He's
Speaker 2: also not a character that deserves punishment like it's. It's
Speaker 2: you can easily imagine a cheap kind of like easy
Speaker 2: comics Tales from the Crypt version of this exact story,
Speaker 2: where his downfall is directly connected to a specific action
Speaker 2: or choice on his part, or a deep seated character
Speaker 2: flaw or something. And that's not really the case either,
Speaker 2: or at least it's not that one thing that fits
Speaker 2: into the the you know, the little box in the
Speaker 2: in the Tales in the Crypt comic book. You know,
Speaker 2: it's it's broader than that.
Speaker 3: It's more complicated, right, I know exactly what you're saying. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: he's not like a Tails from the Crypt protagonist to
Speaker 3: his the classic format of that character is it is
Speaker 3: someone who has done something quite evil, is like flawed
Speaker 3: in a way that spells their own doom. They're going
Speaker 3: to get a kind of karmic punishment, and we are
Speaker 3: satisfied to see them get it. Howie is not like that.
Speaker 3: His unlikeability is shallower and more esthetic. Again, it's just
Speaker 3: that he is like a rude, arrogant, aggressive, prudish, self
Speaker 3: righteous jerk. But again I come back to he is
Speaker 3: a character like that, But we're with him because we
Speaker 3: sense something is very wrong on this island and he
Speaker 3: might be the only person who's able to do something
Speaker 3: about it. But then again, is there something wrong on
Speaker 3: this island? Another way the movie really keeps you guessing
Speaker 3: is the characterization of the people positioned as Sergeant Howie's antagonists,
Speaker 3: like Lord Summerle played by Christopher Lee in a masterful
Speaker 3: performance We'll talk about more as we go on, or
Speaker 3: Miss Rose by Diane Cilento, by sort of the default
Speaker 3: structure of the mystery narrative. These are the suspects in
Speaker 3: the mystery disappearance of Rowan Morrison, and they're so interesting
Speaker 3: and likable and polite and have thoughtful perspectives, and they're
Speaker 3: sometimes just positively jolly in the face of Howie being
Speaker 3: like rude and aggressive to them. And I don't know,
Speaker 3: like all the antagonists are so lovable, even when it
Speaker 3: feels like they're covering something up or not being forthright
Speaker 3: about what they know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, another weird thing about the characters. This is
Speaker 4: one of the only detective stories I can think of.
Speaker 4: In fact, maybe it's the only one. Could you even
Speaker 4: think of a possible counterexample, I don't know. One of
Speaker 4: the only detective stories I know of where the protagonist
Speaker 4: is not only unlikable but not particularly competent. Right, this
Speaker 4: is what you always have a detective story about somebody
Speaker 4: who has powers of reasoning and insights, Sherlock Holmes or Poirot,
Speaker 4: you know, detectives who are skilled at solving a complicated puzzle.
Speaker 3: Sergeant Howie is clearly shown in the movie to be
Speaker 3: not a very good detective at all, and I think
Speaker 3: this is an essential part of his characterization. He is
Speaker 3: constantly missing important clues and constantly making bad choices that
Speaker 3: lead to dead ends in his pursuit of information. I
Speaker 3: think one of the main feelings that the audience will
Speaker 3: generally have about Sergeant Howie is the feeling of pity.
Speaker 3: It's like, oh boy, this poor guy, he is out
Speaker 3: of his depth. Isn't that so strange to have a
Speaker 3: what is essentially a detective story and that's a key
Speaker 3: feature of your protagonist. Can you think of another story
Speaker 3: like that?
Speaker 2: The only examples I can think of are examples where
Speaker 2: the character is played for humor. Yeah, and this is
Speaker 2: where we should probably talk about the tone of the film,
Speaker 2: and I'll just goe and mentioned like humor wise, there
Speaker 2: are lots of things I think you can you can
Speaker 2: you will find humorous in The wicker Man, and I
Speaker 2: think those things are intended. And yet at the same time,
Speaker 2: it's not a comedy. It is played straight, and certainly
Speaker 2: Sergeant Howie's character is played straight like it's you could
Speaker 2: you could easily imagine a character like this tweaked into
Speaker 2: more of like a Michael Scott from the office to area,
Speaker 2: you know, or various like bumbling detective comedies we've seen
Speaker 2: over the years, and that's not what this film is.
Speaker 2: And of course, as well as we will continue to
Speaker 2: discuss like it does defy easy categorization in a number
Speaker 2: of ways.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like the way you put it about the humor.
Speaker 3: I think that's right. It's like, there is a lot
Speaker 3: of intended humor in the movie, and it's iron in nature.
Speaker 3: It's not in the form of overt jokes and gags.
Speaker 3: But anyway, I just all these character dynamics, like the
Speaker 3: unlikeability of the protagonist, the incompetence of the protagonist, and
Speaker 3: the the likability and thoughtfulness of his antagonists. All these
Speaker 3: things really keep you guessing, or they certainly did keep
Speaker 3: me guessing when I first watched Again I when I
Speaker 3: first saw this, I really had no idea where the
Speaker 3: movie was going and was floored by the ending, the
Speaker 3: famous surprise ending.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And then that's the testament to a film
Speaker 2: like this, if you're along for the ride, even if
Speaker 2: you are beginning to wonder, like where could this ride
Speaker 2: possibly be going.
Speaker 3: Now, we've said several times we want to come back
Speaker 3: to the tone of the movie. I think I said
Speaker 3: at the beginning that it's questionable whether you should really
Speaker 3: call this movie a horror movie. When people call it horror,
Speaker 3: I think they're thinking mainly about the ending, which is
Speaker 3: absolutely horrifying. But for like ninety ninety five percent of
Speaker 3: the movie does it really feel like a horror film?
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I think most of the runtime
Speaker 3: it feels more like a bizarre, whimsical, religiously themed mystery.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and even just feels at times feels like
Speaker 2: a goofy musical, but not at like a laugh like
Speaker 2: a horror horror horror goofy musical, but just like you
Speaker 2: might ask yourself, what am I watching. My wife had
Speaker 2: never seen it before, and she watched Party with me
Speaker 2: last night, and I think that was kind of her reaction,
Speaker 2: Like I was like, do you want to watch part
Speaker 2: of this full car movie from the early nineteen seventies,
Speaker 2: And She's like sure, and then she's like, what's going on?
Speaker 3: This is funny. Last night, Rachel and I also showed
Speaker 3: this movie to somebody for the first time and they
Speaker 3: had a similar reaction, though, like what is going on
Speaker 3: for much of the time, but I can report there
Speaker 3: was a big thumbs up in the end awesome, but yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's so so. It's got that weird, not horror at
Speaker 3: all tone for most of the runtime and then suddenly
Speaker 3: bam the ending, which is I think one of the bleakest,
Speaker 3: most terrifying scenes I can think of in all of
Speaker 3: movie history. It is at once beautiful and terrible. It
Speaker 3: makes your blood run cold and then warm and then
Speaker 3: cold again.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty powerful and I in terms of
Speaker 2: films we've watched on Weird House, I put it up
Speaker 2: there with Seconds. Yeah, in terms of its impact, I
Speaker 2: also want to add that even in the film's restored state,
Speaker 2: which is generally how you'll find it I assume streaming
Speaker 2: and certainly on home media, there's a raw as to
Speaker 2: the footage that at times contributes to this feeling that
Speaker 2: we're watching documentary footage of some sort, like it's a
Speaker 2: documentary about the way people actually live on this island. Also,
Speaker 2: you have a lot of non actors in there and musicians,
Speaker 2: as we'll note, which adds to that feel like I'm
Speaker 2: not watching actors, I'm watching real people and this must
Speaker 2: be how they live. The production design, the locations are
Speaker 2: all a part of this. And you could also probably
Speaker 2: compare this to some rather different films from the nineteen
Speaker 2: seventies that also have a similar feel, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
Speaker 2: though again very different sort of horror film.
Speaker 3: Yeah, though this movie has a lot more of a
Speaker 3: community feel than Texas Chainsaw Mascar does, which is very
Speaker 3: isolated and you're only going to meet a few weird characters,
Speaker 3: but it has that documentary visual style. What you mentioned
Speaker 3: about the presence of non actors is I feel like
Speaker 3: a big has a big impact on the ambience of
Speaker 3: this film. Their scenes in a pub or out in
Speaker 3: a you know, on a street beside a harbor, where
Speaker 3: lots of people are milling around on screen and most
Speaker 3: of them are clearly not actors, people kind of looking
Speaker 3: weird and confused and mumbling, and it contributes greatly to
Speaker 3: a sense of reality. Actually, yeah. And it also it
Speaker 3: makes the important characters pop more, like when you know
Speaker 3: all these kind of like old men who are just
Speaker 3: kind of mumbling their lines a little bit as they're
Speaker 3: standing around outside the end, and then we meet Lord
Speaker 3: Somerle and suddenly it's Christopher Lee and you're like awed
Speaker 3: by his presence.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's a great point.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: Another thing that is kind you could think of as
Speaker 3: just an extension of the very unusual tone of the
Speaker 3: movie is the fact that it's also sort of a musical.
Speaker 3: Like it not only prominently features music with lyrics on
Speaker 3: the soundtrack, it has several diegetic musical numbers where the
Speaker 3: characters sing and even sing into the camera. Is there
Speaker 3: another horror movie like that. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't think of another film, certainly a horror
Speaker 2: film that uses music quite the same way.
Speaker 3: One thing that I think is interesting about the use
Speaker 3: of music is that only the characters who live on
Speaker 3: summerle seem to know that they're in a musical. So like, normally,
Speaker 3: if you're in a musical, all the characters saying, or
Speaker 3: all of the major characters sing. The protagonist certainly sings,
Speaker 3: But Sergeant Howie does not sing except we see him
Speaker 3: again it's diegetic music. We see him singing him at
Speaker 3: church at the beginning of the movie. That's just a
Speaker 3: scene where he's in church. He never like looks into
Speaker 3: the camera and sings the way say Britt Eklund does
Speaker 3: or the way Christopher Lee does. So it's only the
Speaker 3: Pagans that are allowed to actually be in a musical
Speaker 3: as musical players. Sergeant Howie is just sort of living
Speaker 3: in their musical world without getting to be an agent
Speaker 3: of music himself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, what if he had sung though, that would
Speaker 2: have been interesting taken in taken more of it like
Speaker 2: a Schmigadoon direction where he realizes that he has to
Speaker 2: sing in order to in order to connect with these characters.
Speaker 3: M yeah, maybe things would have turned out differently for him.
Speaker 2: He does sing a little the end. He does sing
Speaker 2: a little the end. I think, well, we'll get back
Speaker 2: to that. And while he may sing just a little bit,
Speaker 2: he never dances. And dances is also a big part
Speaker 2: of a number of these musical numbers where we see
Speaker 2: some sort of ritual dance taking place.
Speaker 3: In fact, at one point when he's in disguise, he
Speaker 3: gets yelled at for not dancing because he's in disguise
Speaker 3: going down the May Day parade and uh at one
Speaker 3: and Christopher Lee turns and sees him just kind of
Speaker 3: wandering down the road instead of, I don't know, doing
Speaker 3: whatever he's supposed to be doing, and he yells at him.
Speaker 3: Cut some capers, mad, you.
Speaker 2: Got time to glance, You got time to dance?
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I don't think we can possibly do an
Speaker 3: elevator pitch for Wickerman.
Speaker 2: No, it pretty much stands on its own. So let's
Speaker 2: let's go ahead in here just a little bit from
Speaker 2: the what I believe is the original trailer.
Speaker 5: I got a tail on flo whose lightest work would head?
Speaker 2: O up my soul, prett, young blood.
Speaker 5: I am here to investigate the disappearance. I'm a young girl.
Speaker 5: Where is Rowan Morrison? If Ruin Morrison existed, we would
Speaker 5: not I should spect Manda the name of.
Speaker 2: God, woman, What kind of mother are you that can
Speaker 2: stand by and see your own child slaughtered?
Speaker 1: You are the fool of them.
Speaker 5: Liars. You are despicable little liars. Where if Roan Morrison,
Speaker 5: if Morrison existed, we would not. I suspect Manda she was,
Speaker 5: but you are the fool. Where is Rowan Morrison? Oh?
Speaker 5: My god?
Speaker 2: All right? If you would like to see The wicker
Speaker 2: Man again? Widely available in all formats, and it's cult
Speaker 2: following has seen multiple special editions released over the years.
Speaker 2: There have been a few different cuts. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: to what degree we're going to get into talking about
Speaker 2: different cuts of the film. I think there are like
Speaker 2: three major versions, like a theatrical version, and then they
Speaker 2: added some minutes to it, and then they took away
Speaker 2: a few minutes. But definitely watch it in you know,
Speaker 2: the best format you can get. Maybe shopple around a
Speaker 2: little bit on those different forms. I watched it in
Speaker 2: a restored form on Blu Ray one that I rented
Speaker 2: from Atlanta's own Videodrome from their full car subsection. Nice.
Speaker 2: But I don't know which edition it was. I know
Speaker 2: it had like baked in trailers at the beginning, which
Speaker 2: I did not like. I feel like, especially now, it
Speaker 2: makes me think it was maybe a slightly older Blu
Speaker 2: Ray because it's more and more Blu rays these days,
Speaker 2: I feel like are treated like the premium item they are,
Speaker 2: and they're like less tied to timely trailers for motion pictures.
Speaker 3: Wait, what was what were your bakedin trailers for? Mine
Speaker 3: was for a re release of American Psycho. Yes, yes, okay,
Speaker 3: so we've got the same disc, do we?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 3: Okay, So then you probably watched what's called the final cut,
Speaker 3: I think so, And the final cut is I think
Speaker 3: the latest of the major cuts of the film. Did
Speaker 3: your version also have some scenes that were in much
Speaker 3: lower film quality than most of the movie?
Speaker 2: I believe? So? Yeah, restored sequences, yes.
Speaker 3: So, like the scene where Christopher Lee is outside the
Speaker 3: inn at night talking to a slug about how he
Speaker 3: wants to be like him.
Speaker 2: Oh so good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's good. That was not in the original version
Speaker 3: of the movie that I saw. I think the first
Speaker 3: one I saw was the theatrical cut. But so that's
Speaker 3: a restored scene that the film does not look great,
Speaker 3: but I'm glad it's there, and it's worth it to have,
Speaker 3: even though it's cutting back and forth between extremely different
Speaker 3: levels of fidelity. It's worth it to have that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it helps too that the best fidelity in
Speaker 2: the film is not like so great that it feels
Speaker 2: as jarring or at least the Yeah, that's the impression
Speaker 2: I have. Alright, Let's get into the people behind this
Speaker 2: film a bit, starting with the director, of course. The
Speaker 2: director was Robin Hardy, who lived nineteen twenty nine through
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen. English director who started out directing for the
Speaker 2: National Film Board of Canada, then Yeah Yeah, then PBS
Speaker 2: aligned Soo World Theater, before moving to London to partner
Speaker 2: with screenwriter Anthony Schaeffer to co found an advertising agency.
Speaker 2: The wicker Man Again, released in seventy three, filmed in
Speaker 2: seventy two, I believe, was his first feature directorial project
Speaker 2: and by far his most impactful. He only followed it
Speaker 2: up with two other films nineteen eighty six is The Fantasist,
Speaker 2: and twenty eleven's The Wicker Tree, based on his own novel,
Speaker 2: Cowboys for a Christ. He also has a story credit
Speaker 2: on nineteen eighty eights Forbidden's Son. After The Wickerman, he
Speaker 2: returned to the US and mostly wrote historical novels and worked,
Speaker 2: according to his obituary in The Guardian, as a consultant
Speaker 2: in the historical theme park business. David Piner is the
Speaker 2: novelist the novel ritual from nineteen sixty seven. This apparently
Speaker 2: is what they paid to adapt it. It's not one
Speaker 2: of these cases where they just kind of ripped it off,
Speaker 2: like they paid to do the adaptation but then ultimately
Speaker 2: deviated from a lot of it. I haven't read it,
Speaker 2: but I'm to understand it.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: It concerns, maybe on some level, the same skeleton of
Speaker 2: a plot line where a police investigator is checking out
Speaker 2: some rural community that ends up having some some you know,
Speaker 2: pagan elements to their religious rights.
Speaker 3: No way to confirm this, just to guess, but I
Speaker 3: like to imagine that this movie was at least in
Speaker 3: part based on something from Christopher Lee's apocryphal collection of
Speaker 3: Occult Tomes.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. Now, Anthony Shaffer that we mentioned,
Speaker 2: who wrote the screenplay. He lived nineteen twenty six through
Speaker 2: two thousand and one British writer whose previous credits included
Speaker 2: Alfred Hitchcock's nineteen seventy two film Frenzy, which, if you
Speaker 2: haven't seen it, seen it as quite a solid psycho
Speaker 2: killer film, starring John Finch and Barry Foster.
Speaker 3: I've actually never seen that one. I love Hitchcock, but.
Speaker 2: Oh it's good. It hasn't as I recall it as
Speaker 2: a really nice long shot.
Speaker 3: At one point we had some movies with those yet
Speaker 3: was this his second to last movie?
Speaker 2: It was pretty late.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: And also Shaffer wrote the two man play turned film
Speaker 2: Sleuth from the same year, starring Lawrence Olivier and Michael Kine,
Speaker 2: and he'd later work on Let's See. There was a
Speaker 2: whole series of seventies and eighties Agatha Christie film adaptations
Speaker 2: in which Peter Eustonoff played Pierrot and his identical twin brother.
Speaker 2: Peter Schaffer, who lived nineteen twenty six through twenty sixteen,
Speaker 2: was also an acclaimed screenwriter whose stage in screen credits
Speaker 2: include Equis and Amedeus Wow talented siblings.
Speaker 3: Yes, there is a lot to love about The Wickerman,
Speaker 3: but I think it has a particularly fantastic screenplay for
Speaker 3: a horror film. Not to insult horror films generally, but
Speaker 3: you know, I'm a lover of horror, but I'm aware
Speaker 3: that a lot of horror writing does it is attracted
Speaker 3: to cliches, like a magnet sort of, and this screenplay,
Speaker 3: even though now we live in a world where a
Speaker 3: lot of other stories I think have copied a lot
Speaker 3: from The Wickerman, but at least for its own time,
Speaker 3: incredibly unusual and unique and remarkably I think free of
Speaker 3: cliche is just an original and authentic exploration.
Speaker 2: Absolutely all right. Getting into the cast here, playing Sergeant Howie,
Speaker 2: we have Edward Woodwarton, who lived nineteen thirty through two
Speaker 2: thousand and nine, British actor of stage, screen and TV,
Speaker 2: who at the time was best known in the UK
Speaker 2: for his portrayal of Secret Service agent Callen on the
Speaker 2: TV show of the same name. Now, when I first
Speaker 2: watched The wicker Man, I knew him mostly from advertisements
Speaker 2: for the TV show The Equalizer, which ran eighty five
Speaker 2: through eighty nine.
Speaker 3: What does an equalizer do.
Speaker 2: I don't know. It's not a show I ever actually watched,
Speaker 2: but I know I just was like, well, that's the equalizer.
Speaker 2: He equalizes.
Speaker 3: It sounds like a piece of audio equipment.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know if the equalizer on the TV
Speaker 2: show is a cop, if he's like a fixer, Like
Speaker 2: which side of the law he's aligned with? Is he
Speaker 2: a secret agent? I'm not sure, but he equalizes, so
Speaker 2: there's some implied neutrality there.
Speaker 3: I guess I've got a seventy nine two equalizer man.
Speaker 2: He has a ton of credits, though, including nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: four's Beckett, nineteen eighty's Breaker Morant. He had the title
Speaker 2: role in that. He's in nineteen eighty four as a
Speaker 2: Christmas carol. He plays the ghost of Christmas Present in
Speaker 2: that one. This is one of the Christmas carols that
Speaker 2: my family watched a lot when I was a kid.
Speaker 3: That's so funny. The ghost of Christmas Present is supposed
Speaker 3: to be jolly and full of good cheer, which is
Speaker 3: not at all in the role I'm familiar with.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's very different role. He pops up in
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven's Hot Fuzz. His only other horror
Speaker 2: films is that I'm aware of are nineteen seventy one's
Speaker 2: Bloodsuckers and nineteen eighty two's The Appointment. And I would
Speaker 2: also be remiss if I didn't mention that he plays
Speaker 2: Sol in the nineteen eighty five King David movie. That's
Speaker 2: the one that has George Eastman in it.
Speaker 3: This is like the second reference to this in like
Speaker 3: three weeks.
Speaker 2: Everything comes back to George Eastman. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think Edward Woodward should get a lot of love
Speaker 3: for this performance because it's kind of a thankless role.
Speaker 3: Like it is so much easier to love the Pagans
Speaker 3: in the movie, to love Christopher Lee, and to love
Speaker 3: Diane Celento and Ingrid Pitt, you know, all the local
Speaker 3: characters who are sort of the colorful, interesting wild ones.
Speaker 3: As we've said many times, the protagonist of this movie
Speaker 3: is not very likable. He's kind of a stick in
Speaker 3: the mud. He's kind of a jerk, and so I
Speaker 3: think it's very easy to miss how important the portrayal
Speaker 3: of this character is to the effect of the story
Speaker 3: in the end. And Edward Woodward is great in the role.
Speaker 3: He he doesn't try to steal the show and make
Speaker 3: his character more likable than he needs to be. Instead,
Speaker 3: he's he's exactly what is called for by the script
Speaker 3: and he's he's great. He's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's a complex role. It's arguably far more
Speaker 2: complex than any of the other characters that we encounter
Speaker 2: in the picture. I was watching an interview with the
Speaker 2: director and Hardy really gives a lot of credit to
Speaker 2: Woodward for creating this character on the screen. Like he says,
Speaker 2: you know, like with Christopher Lee's character, we had these
Speaker 2: parameters set out and Christopher Lee delivered, you know, knocked
Speaker 2: out of the park. But there was a lot to
Speaker 2: Sergeant Howie that really had to be created in the performance.
Speaker 2: And he gives Woodward all the credit in the world
Speaker 2: for doing that.
Speaker 3: That's right. A lot of how we feel about how
Speaker 3: he isn't even in his lines. It's in kind of
Speaker 3: facial expressions and reactions. He brings such a sense of
Speaker 3: visible frustration to the character in every scene almost you
Speaker 3: can just see him just kind of like shaking with annoyance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and wrestling with what he's seeing. You know, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of he's not telling you his internal monologue
Speaker 2: about how conflicted he may feel about certain things or tempted.
Speaker 2: He may feel about certain things. It's just in the performance, you.
Speaker 3: Know, when he's trying to say hide to maybe a
Speaker 3: prurient sexual interest that he knows he should not have,
Speaker 3: but is part of his character as well. So yeah,
Speaker 3: totally agree. Woodward is excellent.
Speaker 2: All right, Let's move on to Lord summer Isle, who,
Speaker 2: as we've been mentioning, is played by the Great Christopher
Speaker 2: Lee who lived nineteen twenty two through twenty fifteen. This
Speaker 2: is our seventh Weird House Cinema selection featuring Sir Christopher Lee,
Speaker 2: you know, as we as you know, best known for
Speaker 2: such roles as Sarimon the White and Lord of the Rings,
Speaker 2: Dracula in multiple Hammer horror films and some non Hammer
Speaker 2: horror films, and Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels.
Speaker 2: I just caught Revenge of the Sith on the big
Speaker 2: screen in its re release, and his performance is brief
Speaker 2: but very memorable, has a nice little arc to it,
Speaker 2: probably I would say arguably stands out among his very
Speaker 2: late career performances.
Speaker 3: I've said this before that I'm not as big a
Speaker 3: fan of the Star Wars prequels, though not to poo
Speaker 3: poo anybody who does love them, but for me at least,
Speaker 3: even in my least favorite, which is Attack of the Clones,
Speaker 3: when Christopher Lee shows up, it's just it's a whole
Speaker 3: other movie now, Like I love him, and yeah, so
Speaker 3: Christopher Lee is one of my favorites, but this is
Speaker 3: it's got to be. This is my all time favorite
Speaker 3: Christopher Lee role. The Wickerman is head and shoulders above
Speaker 3: them all to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, And this is an opinion that Christopher
Speaker 2: Lee shared as well. By most accounts, the film was
Speaker 2: reportedly a real passion project for him. We mentioned how
Speaker 2: he was pretty much in the room, being one of
Speaker 2: the people who brought it together to begin with, and
Speaker 2: he claimed, and I have no reason to doubt him,
Speaker 2: to have waived off any payment for the role that
Speaker 2: basically like they couldn't afford him, they couldn't afford his rate.
Speaker 2: And he's like, well, don't worry about it. I want
Speaker 2: this film to be made. And then when the film
Speaker 2: studio opted to release it in the UK without a
Speaker 2: screening as part of a double feature, the second half
Speaker 2: of the double feature with Don't Look Now.
Speaker 3: Which is a great horror movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's a very, very well received picture. I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's these are two strange kind of
Speaker 2: an odd match to pair them together. Yes, but that
Speaker 2: kind of also shows you that the studio seemingly didn't
Speaker 2: really know what to do with the film, and we're
Speaker 2: just kind of like, we'll just put it out there,
Speaker 2: we're not going to screen it. But Lee then personally
Speaker 2: calls all the film critics that he knew of to
Speaker 2: encourage them to see the film and offering to buy
Speaker 2: their ticket if they needed him to.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's great. Uh and and I love that because
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure, actually I don't know what the original
Speaker 3: critical reception was, but I know the studio that owned
Speaker 3: that owned the Wickerman hated it when when it was
Speaker 3: coming to I think it was emi like they famously
Speaker 3: like were panicking because they thought the movie was so
Speaker 3: bad and they were trying to find ways to avoid
Speaker 3: releasing it or to to cut it down. I think
Speaker 3: I think they just hated what they had on their
Speaker 3: hands and they didn't realize that it was a masterpiece.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there there. This seems to definitely be the
Speaker 2: be true to some extent, but then there's also some
Speaker 2: seems to be some myth making on top of that.
Speaker 3: Okay, you know, like I said, this.
Speaker 2: Is a film that's been very popular for a long time.
Speaker 2: There's been a lot of interviews and a lot of comments,
Speaker 2: Like I saw one story that I'm I'm casting some
Speaker 2: doubt on that Rod Stewart tried to buy all the
Speaker 2: copies of it at one point so he could destroy
Speaker 2: his then girlfriend's nude scene. Things like that. I don't know,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to pass that by.
Speaker 3: Was he dating Britt Ecklund.
Speaker 2: I believe so, yes, Okay. Also it said that later on,
Speaker 2: when the film was released in the United States and
Speaker 2: seventy four, Lee flew to the States on his own
Speaker 2: dime to promote it as well, and would just appear
Speaker 2: on basically any show to talk about the Wickerman.
Speaker 3: That just filled me with happiness.
Speaker 2: That's gorgeous, and as we've been saying, it is a
Speaker 2: delightful performance from Lee, which I think is saying something
Speaker 2: because while Lee is always a fine screen presence, he
Speaker 2: almost always plays a rather grim and serious character, often
Speaker 2: with a malicious glint in his eyes, and for much
Speaker 2: of the film, the Lord Summerle that we experience is
Speaker 2: a joyous, carefree figure. I swear Lee, who is I
Speaker 2: think around fifty at the time, really feels younger and
Speaker 2: certainly more energetic in this role than any anything else
Speaker 2: I've seen him in from before or after this picture.
Speaker 3: He has the energy of a twenty two year old
Speaker 3: hippie who does clowning school. Yes, yeah, he's just he's
Speaker 3: just magical. In the movie, he's bursting with positive intensity,
Speaker 3: occasionally turning threatening and then just turning very friendly and charming.
Speaker 5: Again.
Speaker 3: He has, in fact, he has kind of the quality
Speaker 3: of a pagan god. You can feel him almost becoming
Speaker 3: superhumanly enlarged and striding over the fields, beaming down sunshine
Speaker 3: at everyone around him.
Speaker 2: That's good, that's good. Yeah. So these are our two
Speaker 2: main characters, I guess in the film, but we have
Speaker 2: a number of very interesting supporting roles, starting with I
Speaker 2: believe we mentioned her already, but Diane Cialino plays Miss Rose,
Speaker 2: who I believe is the town teacher. She's teaching to
Speaker 2: I don't know what other like a lot of it's
Speaker 2: a small town, so a lot of people have multiple
Speaker 2: roles here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, double book on a lot of occupations in the town.
Speaker 3: Miss Rose is a great character in dian Cia Lento
Speaker 3: is excellent in this role. I mean, I'm gonna sound
Speaker 3: repetitive with the cast because everybody's so good, but she
Speaker 3: is great. She has such a gracious, almost flowing water
Speaker 3: kind of way of reacting to Sergeant Howie's aggressive inquiry.
Speaker 3: You know, she's at many points she is resisting his investigation.
Speaker 3: But it's just hard to feel like she could possibly
Speaker 3: be a bad guy, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, she Like a number of the other townsfolk
Speaker 2: that we meet, they're very likable and they seem very
Speaker 2: sensible in the face of his investigation.
Speaker 3: Yes, they're always making good points against Yeah.
Speaker 2: So. Cialento lived nineteen thirty two through twenty eleven Australian
Speaker 2: born actress of stage and screen who is nominated for
Speaker 2: an Oscar in nineteen sixty four for her supporting performance
Speaker 2: in the movie Tom Jones. Her other credits include sixty
Speaker 2: five's The Agony and the Ecstasy, nineteen sixty seven Zombre,
Speaker 2: and nineteen seventy two ZPG. She married Anthony Schaeffer in
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five, and from her previous marriage, she was
Speaker 2: the mother of Jason Connery. I've read that she was
Speaker 2: a self professed white witch at the time of the
Speaker 2: Wickerman's filming and was personally involved in various details, including
Speaker 2: the fire dance. And at one point there's a tarot
Speaker 2: card on the ceiling and I believe I've read that
Speaker 2: she drew that or painted it.
Speaker 3: Oh cool.
Speaker 2: Oh. And then of course there's the innkeeper's daughter, Willow,
Speaker 2: played by britt Eklund.
Speaker 3: Also great. Britt Ekland gets a full on musical number
Speaker 3: where she turns and looks into the camera while she's
Speaker 3: singing yes.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Born nineteen forty two, Swiss actress, model and singer
Speaker 2: who certainly delivers charisma and sex appeal for several key
Speaker 2: scenes in the film, a character who, in Lord Somerle's words,
Speaker 2: is the embodiment of the Goddess of Love. Ecklunn was
Speaker 2: a rather major celebrity of the day and appeared in
Speaker 2: some notable early nineteen seventies films, including seventy one's Get Carter,
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy two's Asylum, and nineteen seventy four Is the
Speaker 2: Man with the Golden Gun, which of course also featured
Speaker 2: Christopher Lee.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I watch that movie as a kind of it's
Speaker 3: a James Bond movie. Yes, probably one of the worst
Speaker 3: James Bond movies. It's not very good, but as I
Speaker 3: say about some movies on here, it's not very good,
Speaker 3: but it's a good time. It's just a nice little
Speaker 3: wicker Man reunion to watch every now and then. I
Speaker 3: seem to recall the character she plays in The Man
Speaker 3: with the Golden Gun is supposed to be kind of
Speaker 3: not very smart, like she's kind of always like clumsily.
Speaker 3: I don't she's like a spy, but she's constantly like, whoops,
Speaker 3: getting bumped into the trunk of a car. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know. It doesn't make a lot of sense,
Speaker 3: but it's not a great movie. But in The Wickerman
Speaker 3: she is not dumb. She's rather crafty.
Speaker 2: Actually yeah she uh you know, she behaves almost like
Speaker 2: a like a siren character. Yeah, and she has at
Speaker 2: least one key uh scene that features nudity, and I
Speaker 2: want to want to highlight that. A lot of times,
Speaker 2: you know, the nudity and films of this era and
Speaker 2: certainly of the genre or are more about pure titillation.
Speaker 2: And you know, not to say that these scenes are
Speaker 2: removed of titillation, but but there's a there's a lot
Speaker 2: more going on here, and I feel like they're they're
Speaker 2: overall very well crafted. In the extra that I featured,
Speaker 2: Hardy talks a little bit about the Key Brett Acklin
Speaker 2: nude scene and how they shot it and all, and
Speaker 2: there's some there are actually some fun stories about that
Speaker 2: where they actually had to send off for someone to
Speaker 2: come in to be the butt double for that scene.
Speaker 2: They had to get somebody from like a nightclub in Scotland.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's funny, But we should say we've been speaking
Speaker 3: about them like they might be two different scenes. The
Speaker 3: nude scene is also the musical number Yes, yes, yeah,
Speaker 3: and it is the scene where britt Eklund is really
Speaker 3: dedicated to making Sergeant Howie starts sinning.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, he's in another room. But this the end
Speaker 2: has very thin walls and you can hear everything, like
Speaker 2: the people downstairs can hear everything. Howd he can hear everything? Yeah,
Speaker 2: we'll get into that when we talk about the specific scene,
Speaker 2: all right. And then rounding out the our trio of
Speaker 2: blonde seventy starlets in this picture, we have Ingrid Pitt
Speaker 2: playing the librarian. She lived nineteen thirty seven through twenty ten.
Speaker 2: Something of a Hammer Horror regular, the Polish born actress
Speaker 2: who started out on the East Berlin Stage. Is best
Speaker 2: known for roles in such films as nineteen sixty eights
Speaker 2: Where Eagles Dare, nineteen seventies The Vampire Lovers, and nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy one's Countess Eddracula. Her other credits include episodes of
Speaker 2: Doctor Who, nineteen seventy one is The House that Dripped
Speaker 2: Blood and nineteen eighty five's Transmutations. We'll have more to
Speaker 2: say about her when we talk about the specific one
Speaker 2: of the main scenes that features the librarian.
Speaker 3: Yes, now, you mentioned the character of Willow McGregor. That's
Speaker 3: britt Eklund. But we also meet her father, the Innkeeper
Speaker 3: aka the Landlord, who is an extremely odd critter.
Speaker 2: Yes Yes. Played by Lindsey Kemp, who lived nineteen thirty
Speaker 2: eight through twenty eighteen. He was a British dancer, actor, teacher,
Speaker 2: mime artist and choreographer. His other acting credits include seventy
Speaker 2: two Savage Messiah, a nineteen eighty four TV adaptation of
Speaker 2: A Midsummer Night's Dream in which he plays Puck, and
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight's Velvet gold Mine. Very interesting character in
Speaker 2: his own right. He was a mentor to both David
Speaker 2: Bowie and Kate bush.
Speaker 3: Hats off to him. I love every he's on screen.
Speaker 3: He's got this wild kind of raised eyebrow that's just
Speaker 3: always like, oh, you know you're a policeman, are you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's great. There is always that kind of like
Speaker 2: a sly judgment taking place with him. Yeah, wonderful little role.
Speaker 2: I mean all the so, all the towns folk are great,
Speaker 2: the non actors, the musicians, and then the various character
Speaker 2: actors here and there. One that really stands out though,
Speaker 2: is Aubrey Morris playing the old gardener Slash the grave Digger. Yes,
Speaker 2: a great British character actor whose supporting roles include films
Speaker 2: like seventy one a Clockwork, Orange Blood from the Mummy's
Speaker 2: Tomb and Lyssomania, also nineteen eighty five's Life Force and
Speaker 2: the She Creature from two thousand and one. I would
Speaker 2: say one of the most memorable locals we meet in
Speaker 2: the film.
Speaker 3: He has a fantastic moment where Sergeant Howie asks him
Speaker 3: where their minister is and he just says and starts
Speaker 3: laughing and walks away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's really he We meet him in the graveyard,
Speaker 2: a great scene in the graveyard. Well we'll probably get
Speaker 2: to but yeah, He lived nineteen twenty six through twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2: All right, now, one more local man that I want
Speaker 2: to mention here. There's a fishmonger character, and I'm not
Speaker 2: sure I one hundred percent remember the fishmonger. Do you
Speaker 2: remember the fishmonger?
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: It's possible his scene was even cut. I'm not certain.
Speaker 2: If nothing else, we may see him in the background.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of rosy cheeked, gray haired, partly
Speaker 3: balding old men who stand around in the background of
Speaker 3: many scenes at the pub, at the harbor, and so forth,
Speaker 3: at the May Day celebration and don't really get in
Speaker 3: many individual moments of their own. But it's a it's
Speaker 3: a but overall, it's a big community ensemble, and so
Speaker 3: there are a lot of characters you're not going to
Speaker 3: remember very specifically.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, the fishmonger is played by John Young, who
Speaker 2: lived nineteen sixteen through nineteen ninety six. And this is
Speaker 2: the guy who played the modern day historian that A
Speaker 2: Knight murders in nineteen seventy five's Monty Python and the
Speaker 2: Holy Grail.
Speaker 3: Oh I remember him, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he shows up like it's, you know, a television
Speaker 2: show about medieval history. And then at one point a
Speaker 2: night rides past him and slays him with a sword. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a good gag. Yeah, as John Young. He was
Speaker 2: also in Life of Brian in seventy nine and eighty
Speaker 2: one's Chariots of Fire. Oh, and he's also in Time
Speaker 2: Badmit's all right. And then coming back around to the music,
Speaker 2: Paul Giovanni was the composer. He lived nineteen thirty three
Speaker 2: through nineteen ninety and Yeah, there's there's a lot where
Speaker 2: we're going to continue to say about the music of
Speaker 2: The Wicker Man, a film that makes terrific use of
Speaker 2: digetic music, contributing heavily to the uneasiness of the film
Speaker 2: and also creating that feeling of uncertainty regarding what sort
Speaker 2: of musical film are we watching. Paul Giovanni was an
Speaker 2: American playwright, actor, director, a singer and musician, and we
Speaker 2: see him in the film as well. The man singing
Speaker 2: gently Johnny and the green Man in.
Speaker 3: Oh, I didn't realize that was Paul Giovanni. He's a
Speaker 3: handsome fella and he's a good singer.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, he also sings on corn Riggs and Landlord's daughter.
Speaker 2: Giovanni wrote the music and much of the lyrics I
Speaker 2: think corn Riggs is adapted from a Robert Burns song,
Speaker 2: But this was his only musical film credit. But his
Speaker 2: plays include The Crucifer of Blood, which was adapted in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one for a TV film starring Charlton Heston
Speaker 2: as Sherlock Holmes. What Yeah, and that is one of.
Speaker 3: The weirdest pieces of casting I've ever heard of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've never seen it. I'm only vaguely aware of it.
Speaker 2: And my initial reaction is much like when I hear
Speaker 2: about anybody playing Sherlock Holmes. I'm my personal response is
Speaker 2: You're not Sherlock Holmes. Jeremy Brett is Sherlock Holmes. But
Speaker 2: then I read this is crazy. Just learned this literally today.
Speaker 2: That ten years earlier before this TV adaptation of The
Speaker 2: Crucifer of Blood, Heston played the role in an LA
Speaker 2: stage adaptation of the play and Jeremy Brett played Watson.
Speaker 3: What Yeah.
Speaker 2: It doesn't seem right, It doesn't seem like it should
Speaker 2: be real. It seems like this is some sort of
Speaker 2: awful joke being played on me personally. But yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: sure Jimmy Brett was a fine Watson.
Speaker 3: I gotta look this up. I just I am not
Speaker 3: even finding myself able to imagine Charlton Heston as Sherlock Holmes.
Speaker 3: That is weird. That is deep weird.
Speaker 2: I don't have any other information on it. I don't
Speaker 2: know if he attempts a British accent or not. But
Speaker 2: it definitely happened. It happened more than once. Now it's
Speaker 2: not just Paul Giovanni on the music here. The collaborating
Speaker 2: musicians responsible are credited as Magnet, headed up by composer
Speaker 2: Gary Carpenter born nineteen fifty one, who was also associate
Speaker 2: music director on the film. I watched a great interview
Speaker 2: with Carpenter about the film's music and the winding path
Speaker 2: the soundtrack took to actual physical release. All very insightful
Speaker 2: and full of lots of technical details if you're interested
Speaker 2: in like the recording details and all. But one observation
Speaker 2: he made that I thought was interesting is he compares
Speaker 2: the raw recording style of the film's music is being
Speaker 2: very similar to later trends and just music recording in general.
Speaker 2: So we have all these scenes where in the picture
Speaker 2: musicians characters that our musicians are creating the music within
Speaker 2: the scene but of course all of that is also
Speaker 2: recorded separately in a sound studio to be used as
Speaker 2: part of you know, to create the film score and soundtrack.
Speaker 2: But it's the same people. So you have this interesting
Speaker 2: connection there, and that's I think one of the reasons
Speaker 2: that they said, well, we're going to record this in
Speaker 2: such a way that there is a rawness to it
Speaker 2: that you can He kept talking about how you can
Speaker 2: hear like like some of the physical details of the instrumentation,
Speaker 2: you know, I guess to sort of you in the
Speaker 2: scene with the music creation and not just experiencing the
Speaker 2: results of the musical act.
Speaker 3: Interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so once again, yeah, the music is a very
Speaker 2: important part of the Wickerman and is on the whole terrific.
Speaker 2: I should also add that the score is widely available.
Speaker 2: You can buy it, you can stream it, so after
Speaker 2: you've watched The wicker Man, you can do what I've
Speaker 2: been doing and just run run the score and the
Speaker 2: soundtrack over and over again in your headphones.
Speaker 3: And you can wander around your house singing corn rigs
Speaker 3: and bars.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh, we do that so much. All right. Now,
Speaker 2: this is the point at which we would normally transition
Speaker 2: into discussing the plot but I believe, given that we
Speaker 2: have so much more to talk about, and we're going
Speaker 2: to go ahead and cut this episode and we will
Speaker 2: continue this in a part too, in the next installment
Speaker 2: of Weird House Cinema.
Speaker 3: That's right, gives you plenty of time to watch the movie.
Speaker 3: If you did not heed our warning at the very
Speaker 3: beginning and go watch it, then that's right.
Speaker 2: We haven't done this with many films. We were talking
Speaker 2: about this before we enrolled here. We did it with
Speaker 2: Highlander two, and we did it with Lynch's Doune. So
Speaker 2: uh uh, yeah. You know, this is a film that
Speaker 2: I think checks off all the boxes. It's a big film.
Speaker 2: There's a lot that's been said about it. There's a
Speaker 2: lot that we have to say about it. I mean,
Speaker 2: I feel like I could spend a good half hour
Speaker 2: just talking about key scenes, such as the scene all
Speaker 2: the scenes that take place in the candy store slash
Speaker 2: post office.
Speaker 3: Oh well, okay, then this is something we should do
Speaker 3: before we wrap up today's episode. What is your top
Speaker 3: confection from the post office slash slash candy store in
Speaker 3: summer Isle Town.
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean there's so much. I mean, I love
Speaker 2: this shop. This is one of those shops that feels
Speaker 2: absolutely real, you know, I imagine they've taken any they took.
Speaker 2: They took an existing shop and in Scotland and uh
Speaker 2: one the Loton location, and dressed it up and it's
Speaker 2: just filled with all of these you know, strange pagan treats.
Speaker 3: And you're saying they would really feed these nightmare images
Speaker 3: to children.
Speaker 2: I guess. So you know within you know, in the
Speaker 2: fictional world of the film, Yes, I mean, there are
Speaker 2: several key standouts that there is, of course, the baby cake,
Speaker 2: the kid cake. That's that's an easy favorite I think
Speaker 2: for anybody. But the closer you look, there are all
Speaker 2: these other little details. There are little pink elephants. I
Speaker 2: don't know what the pink elephants represent within their their
Speaker 2: their rights and observations, but they are there in their
Speaker 2: numerous ones. There are some wonderful frogs or toads. Those
Speaker 2: were my wife's favorites.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the chocolate rams heads with littless yellow eyes.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, there are a number of hairs as well,
Speaker 2: and some other strange babies that are are in the
Speaker 2: shop in addition to this. So I don't know, I've
Speaker 2: got to go with the kid cake or the elephants.
Speaker 2: Probably the kid cake. It's the kid cake.
Speaker 3: How about the bride with the wreath of pink flowers
Speaker 3: around her head with the eyes pinned open like Alex
Speaker 3: in Clockwork? Orange good too? What are they showing that cake?
Speaker 3: What does she have to watch? Are they playing the
Speaker 3: lud big Band?
Speaker 2: I think the kid cake has maybe some I'd have
Speaker 2: to watch the scene again, but based on a still
Speaker 2: that I pulled up, I think there's like maybe a
Speaker 2: jelly filling to it, which you know is fitting.
Speaker 3: Oh I see that. Yeah, you see them cut it
Speaker 3: open and it's kind of spilling out.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Maybe it's like a jam roll jamcake sort of
Speaker 2: a situation. I don't know.
Speaker 3: Now. Something that's really confusing is that in may Morrison's
Speaker 3: post office slash sweet shop they serve green frog cakes
Speaker 3: that you eat, But we also see in the same
Speaker 3: shop later she's putting a live green frog in a
Speaker 3: kid's mouth to cure her of a sore throat.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, but then that's not candy, that's medicinal. But
Speaker 2: then she gets the hard candy afterwards as a treat
Speaker 2: to sort of like, you know, that's right, to get
Speaker 2: rid of the taste of the Frog.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, learn more about the Sweet Shop and
Speaker 3: the rest of what Samurail has to offer to the
Speaker 3: adventurous tourists. You'll have to come back next week for
Speaker 3: part two of our series on the Wickerman.
Speaker 2: That's right, keep your appointment with the Wickerman next week
Speaker 2: on Weird House Cinema. But in the meantime, we would
Speaker 2: love to hear from you. If you already have thoughts
Speaker 2: to share about the Wickerman, write in We'd love to
Speaker 2: hear from you. Let's see. We should remind you that
Speaker 2: if you want to follow Weird House Cinema online, we
Speaker 2: have a letterboxed account. You can find us there. Our
Speaker 2: username is weird House. We have a nice list of
Speaker 2: all the movies we've covered over the years, sometimes a
Speaker 2: peek ahead at what's coming up next, and you can
Speaker 2: also follow us on Instagram at STBYM podcast. We're on
Speaker 2: some other social networks as well, but those are the
Speaker 2: main places to follow us.
Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, do suggest
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello.
Speaker 3: You can email us at contact at Stuff to Blow
Speaker 3: Your Mind dot com.
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