Christopher Lee worked without his standard fee to make The Wicker Man because the budget could not cover it. He called it the best film he had ever made.
British Lion Films cut 13 minutes from Robin Hardy's cut and released it as the B-picture on a double bill with Don't Look Now in December 1973. The studio arranged no press screenings.
When British Lion declined to promote the film, Lee personally contacted UK film critics and funded his own promotional trip to the United States.
The original production materials were lost. A print Roger Corman had received for US distribution assessment became the key source for restoration. A print discovered at the Harvard Film Archive in 2013 became the basis for the Final Cut.
People on Backlot are watching it this week.
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