It was butchered by studio bosses, cinemas didn't want to show it and it was eventually released as the B-movie in a double-bill.

Now, 35 years after it was made, The Wicker Man is finally getting top billing with a nationwide cinema re-release.

It will screen in about 150 cinemas throughout the UK as part of a major new initiative to get audiences watching Britain's greatest movies on the big screen again.

Christopher Lee, who played the head of the pagan Scottish community in the film, welcomed news of its re-release: "I'm glad to hear it," he said. "I am told that it's one of the best British films ever made and I think it's a very good idea that the public should get the chance to see something which is part of British film history."

BBC2 is about to declare this as the Summer of British Film. The flagship event will be a seven-part documentary series and seven British classics will be re-released in cinemas to tie in with the programmes. Goldfinger, The Dam Busters, Billy Liar, Brief Encounter, Withnail and I and Henry V are the other films chosen by industry experts.

The Wicker Man developed a huge cult following on video and DVD. There have been books about it, documentaries and even an academic conference. Shot in 1972 in Kirkcudbrightshire and elsewhere in the west of Scotland, it famously ended with Edward Woodward being burned as a human sacrifice.