The production was based at Newton Stewart, on the River Cree, north of Wigtown Bay in southwest Scotland. The near-tropical (warmed by the gulf stream) island estate of Lord Summerisle (so kindly thanked in the movie’s credits – and as bogus as Eve Channing in Sleuth) is an amalgam of around 25 separate locations, all of them on the Scottish mainland. There is a real Summerisle, but it’s way to the north of where this movie filmed. Sergeant Howie ( Edward Woodward) is the puritanically Christian cop sent to investigate the disappearance of schoolgirl Rowan Morrison on a remote and lustily pagan Scottish isle. It’s open to the public from the end of March to the end of October. Culzean Castle, a fine Adam house, just off the A719, twelve miles southwest of Ayr, is the exterior of Lord Summerisle’s (Christopher Lee) mansion. Its success lies in the gameplaying of the clever plot and wicked script of Anthony Shaffer (who also penned Sleuth). The maypole dance, schoolhouse and the old deconsecrated kirk, where Rowan is supposedly buried, are at the village of Anwoth, just west of Gatehouse of Fleet. Savagely cut down before release, and with some seriously shaky Scots accents, The Wicker Man has nevertheless achieved cult status since its initial release as B-feature with Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now. Yes, of course this is the 1973 original, not the recent, much-derided remake.
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