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A screenplay penned by Anthony Shaffer and featuring Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward could have been an ideal venture for director Robin Hardy during the filming of The Wicker Man more than half a century ago.

Although today it is celebrated as an iconic horror film, the degree of misery it caused the production team has now been uncovered in newly discovered letters and early versions of the script.

The Storyline of This Classic Film

The 1973 film revolves around a puritan police officer, portrayed by the actor, who arrives on a remote Scottish island looking for a lost child, only to encounter mysterious pagan residents who claim the girl was real. the actress was cast as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who seduces the religious policeman, with Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Creative Conflict Revealed

However, the working environment was tense and fractious, the documents show. In a letter to the writer, the director stated: “How could you treat me like this?”

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

Heavy edits feature the aristocrat’s dialogue in the final scene, which would have begun: “The child was but the tip of the iceberg – the part that showed. Don’t blame yourself, there was no way you could have known.”

Beyond the Creative Duo

Conflict escalated outside the writer and director. One of the producers commented: “Shaffer’s talent was marred by excessive indulgence that impels him to show he was too clever by half.”

In a note to the producers, the director expressed frustration about the film’s editor, the editing specialist: “I don’t think he likes the subject or approach of the picture … and thinks that he is tired of it.”

In a correspondence, Christopher Lee described the film as “appealing and mysterious”, even with “dealing with a talkative producer, an underpaid and harassed writer and a well-paid but difficult director”.

Lost Documents Found

A large collection of letters relating to the film was among six sack-loads of papers forgotten in the loft of the former home of Hardy’s third wife, Caroline. There were also previously unseen scripts, visual plans, on-set photographs and financial accounts, many of which show the challenges experienced by the film-makers.

Hardy’s sons his two sons, now 60 and 63, have drawn on the material for a forthcoming book, titled Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the extreme pressures on the director during the making of the film – from his heart attack to financial ruin.

Family Fallout

At first, the movie was a box office flop and, in the aftermath of its failure, the director left his spouse and their children for a new life in America. Legal letters show his wife as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that Hardy was indebted to her as much as £1m in today’s money. She had to give up the family home and passed away in the 1980s, in her fifties, suffering from addiction, never knowing that the project eventually became a global hit.

Justin, an acclaimed documentary maker, called The Wicker Man as “the movie that messed up my family”.

When someone reached out by a resident living in his mother’s old house, asking whether he wanted to retrieve the sacks of papers, his initial reaction was to propose burning “all of it”.

But then he and his stepbrother Dominic examined the sacks and realised the importance of what they held.

Revelations from the Documents

His brother, a scholar, said: “All the big players are in there. We discovered an original script by Shaffer, but with dad’s annotations as filmmaker, ‘controlling’ the writer’s excess. Due to his legal background, Shaffer did a lot of overexplaining and dad just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They respected each other and hated each other.”

Writing the book has brought some “closure”, Justin said.

Financial Hardships

The family never benefited monetarily from the film, he explained: “The bloody film has gone on to make a fortune for other people. It’s beyond a joke. His father accepted a small fee. Thus, he missed out on any of the upside. The actor also did not get any money from it as well, despite the fact that he did his role for no pay, to get out of his previous studio. So, in many ways, it’s been a very unkind film.”