John Brown - still photographer

Shot 30 (33?) contact sheets? ~35 pics per sheet = 1050 pics. Later info from Allan Brown says there are 45 so about 1575?

Some of these shots are on this wiki in the missing scenes pages. specifically the Mainland (the bridge, pub and prostitute scenes) page, the Librarian bath scenes page, and possibly this shot from the Inside the Green Man page.

In February of 2006 an article in the London Sunday Times wrote about discovering more of the pictures. Allan Brown let them know about three contact sheets of them. (Steve P mentioned this in the Yahoo group at the time and eventually posted them. (Look for wm contact sheet1.jpg, wm contact sheet2.jpg and wm contact sheet3.jpg in the Files section, under Pictures.)

Wiped News mentioned this in 2010.(Internet Archive copy of that)

“They include a scene in which Sgt. Howie (Edward Woodward) closes a mainland pub that is open after-hours and another where the policeman receives a massage from Willow McGregor (Britt Ekland). Also captured on the contact sheets is a drinking contest in The Green Man pub.”

- mainland pub√

- Howie receives massage from Willow? - This isn't a "missing scene." It is only some behind the scenes action, Britt giving Edward a shoulder massage.

- drinking contest in the Green Man? (wrestling shot? 2093?)

"Then John Brown, the film’s photographer, tracked me down, as he had found the dusty shoebox in the attic with all the contact sheets of the photos he’d taken on set, so he tracked me down through the publishers and asked if I wanted them.

A lot of those contact sheets showed that certain scenes Lee claimed had been shot actually were, so that was another incentive. I originally wanted to do a pamphlet, using extracts from the shooting script next to the scenes from the contact sheet, so that the nearest we had to a complete Wicker Man was this brochure. I mentioned it to a few people, including someone from Polygon, and they asked if I could republish it as I owned the copyright."

In this Yahoo group thread, Steve P and others talk about them.

2/10/06

Hi Folks,

The coming Sunday Times is doing an article about "The Wicker Man". Specifically, "about the discovery of "missing" stills from the original film in John Brown's (on-set photographer) attic." Guess the name behind this story..... yes, one Allan Brown! The Sunday Times has been talking both to John Brown and Allan Brown (no relation) and the story is that the full set of on-set publicity photos has been found, amounting to about 30 sheets, each of around 35 stills.

The three scans that the ST has received from AB are exactly the same ones he was flogging on Ebay (so did he flog the originals and keep scans, or flog copies or what?), with the pub scenes, shots of the bridge, nude Ingrid Pitt etc.

I told the ST that is was extremely likely that the other 27-ish sheets also had shots from missing scenes - I think they were thinking only the 4 they were sent specifically had "missing" stuff. So the ST say they will be asking JB about the rest of the shots.

The 3 sheets that have been received have shots as follows:

8 x dolls in rude position on bed, Hardy looking on.

5 x Pitt standing up in bath, nude from rear.

6 x Pitt nude from front against wall, posed/portrait-style.

2 x Dr Ewan on motorbike.

5 x Howie in sweetshop, with May Morrison (as seen in finished film)

3 x Woman in ruined church breastfeeding baby (as seen in finish film)

6 x Howie in ruined church holding up his cross (ditto)

2 x shots of a swan (nothing to do with film??)

4 x shots of a bridge (supposedly something to do with the little-

known "suicide" scene, but nothing to expand on this is shown)

9 x close-ups of drunk man having histrionics of some sort in mainland

pub scene (actor is Tony Sympson)

9 x various crowd shots in same pub, again featuring Sympson with Howie and McTaggart.

3 x ditto

6 x portrait/publicity-style shots of a woman (presumably the prostitute encountered by Howie and McTaggart after the pub scene)

8 x Howie/McTaggart in car (as seen in finished film, long version)

12 x publicity shots of Howie in Punch disguise with Nuada plaque in background (not really a lost scene)

Not sure I'm really allowed to post copies just at the mo, but hopefully can do so after a little while... (He did later on, see contact sheet 1, 2, 3)

Steve (Phillips)

Declan

peter (cross), from the descriptions given to steve p, these pictures are the ones he has already sold. so either he sold these revelationary artifacts belonging to the other mr brown, or he sold faked copies for hundreds and hundreds.

\*\*\*

So, where are the other 27?

\*\*\*

 July 2017

This portrait of Lord Summerisle was intended to be used in the registrar's office. Instead another similar shot was used, with his arms at his side.

   An e-mail to Steve P from John Brown in July of 2013.

Hi Steve

I have just read with interest your on-line article on "The Wicker Man".

As I was the stills photographer on the film there are a couple of points I would like to clarify.

You suggest that the missing scene between Howie and the Librarian may have been a 'posed publicity shot'.  No shots were taken on the film strictly for publicity purposes.  All 'scene shots' were taken either during rehearsals prior to filming or set up after the final take with the intention of replicating either all or part of the shot just completed.  For example, the shot of Ingrid Pitt in the bath was 'posed' after the final take and the scene with Edward Woodward would have bee taken during the final rehearsal.  A set of contact prints of the original 35mm B&W negatives, once held by me but no longer in my possession, showed the whole of that scene, as well as other scenes not in any of the versions of the film currently available.  I'm looking forward to the forthcoming 'final cut' with great anticipation.

As for the shot at the end of your article of Britt Eckland giving Edward Woodward a shoulder rub, if my memory serves me well after all this time, it was highly likely that this was a 'between the scenes' shot of the two relaxing, as actors do between scenes.  I would have just taken the opportunity to 'grab' the pictures.  They were certainly not posed for publicity purposes, that is something I was not apt to do, but I would take advantage of any spontaneous behaviour by the cast.  As this shot was taken with a wide angle lens, it is not beyond the realms of probablity that once I started taking photographs of what was a spontaneous action then the two actors went into 'character', hence the apparent act of praying by Edward Woodward.  If the full set of contact prints are still held in Warner Bros archives, or elsewhere, then you would be able to obtain further clarification as to how this shot originated.  If the full set of contact prints is still available it would show all scenes that were shot and not included in the film as I would have taken stills of each and every scene.

I hope this helps, and doesn't add to any confusion.

Best wishes

John Brown