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A screenplay crafted by Anthony Shaffer and starring a horror icon and the lead actor should have been an ideal venture for filmmaker Robin Hardy during the filming of The Wicker Man over half a century ago.

Although today it is celebrated as a cult horror masterpiece, the degree of misery it caused the production team is now uncovered in newly discovered letters and early versions of the script.

The Plot of This Classic Film

The 1973 film revolves around a puritan police officer, played by Edward Woodward, who travels on a remote Scottish island looking for a missing girl, but finds sinister local pagans who claim she ever existed. Britt Ekland appeared as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who tempts the religious policeman, with Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Production Conflict Uncovered

But the creative atmosphere was frayed and contentious, according to the letters. In a message to Shaffer, Hardy wrote: “How dare you treat me this way?”

The screenwriter had already made his name with acclaimed works such as Sleuth, but his typed draft of The Wicker Man reveals the director’s harsh edits to his work.

Heavy edits feature Summerisle’s lines in the final scene, originally starting: “The girl was but the tip of the iceberg – the part that showed. Do not reproach yourself, there was no way you could have known.”

Apart from the Creative Duo

Conflict escalated outside the writer and director. A producer commented: “Shaffer’s talent was marred by excessive indulgence that impels him to show he was overly smart.”

In a letter to the production team, the director expressed frustration about the editor, the editing specialist: “I don’t think he likes the subject or style of the picture … and feels that he has had enough of it.”

In one letter, Christopher Lee referred to the film as “alluring and mysterious”, despite “dealing with a garrulous producer, an underpaid and harassed writer and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Lost Documents Found

An extensive correspondence relating to the production was among six sack-loads of papers forgotten in the attic of the old house of the director’s spouse, his wife. Included were unpublished drafts, visual plans, production photos and financial accounts, many of which reflect the struggles faced by the team.

Hardy’s sons his two sons, currently in their sixties, have drawn on these documents for an upcoming publication, titled Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the intense stress on Hardy during the making of the movie – from his heart attack to financial ruin.

Family Consequences

At first, the movie was a box office flop and, following the disappointment, the director left his wife and their children for a fresh start in the US. Legal letters reveal Caroline as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that Hardy was indebted to her up to a large sum. She was forced to give up their house and died in the 1980s, in her fifties, battling alcoholism, unaware that her film later turned into a global hit.

His son, an acclaimed documentary maker, called The Wicker Man as “the movie that ruined our family”.

When someone reached out by a woman living in his mother’s old house, inquiring if he wanted to collect the sacks of papers, his first thought was to propose destroying “all of it”.

But then he and his stepbrother Dominic examined the bags and understood the importance of their contents.

Revelations from the Documents

Dominic, a scholar, said: “All the big players are in there. We found the first draft by the writer, but with his father’s notes as director, ‘controlling’ Shaffer’s overexuberance. Due to his legal background, Shaffer tended to overwrite and his father just went ‘cut, cut, cut’. They sort of loved each other and hated each other.”

Compiling the publication provided some “resolution”, Justin said.

Financial Struggles

His family never benefited financially from the production, he explained: “This movie has gone on to make a fortune for other people. It’s beyond a joke. Dad accepted a small fee. So he never received any of the upside. The actor also did not get payment from it either, although he performed his role for no pay, to leave his previous studio. Therefore, it’s been a very unkind film.”