Film Finances and The Wicker Man (1973)

This article explores the production history of the cult British horror
film The Wicker Man (1973), drawing upon sources held by the Film Finances
Archive. While most previous accounts of the making of The Wicker Man
have been based on contemporary press coverage and interviews with
surviving members of cast and crew, the Film Finances Archive includes a
range of primary source materials – including production correspondence,
scripts, budgets, schedules, progress reports and cost statements – which not
only provide evidence of the film’s problematic production but also challenge
some of the fan myths that have accumulated around the film. The article
concludes that some of the alleged ‘lost’ or ‘missing’ scenes of The Wicker
Man were in fact never completed during the chaotic shoot.