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A screenplay penned by the acclaimed writer and starring Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward was expected to be an ideal venture for director Robin Hardy while the production of The Wicker Man more than 50 years ago.

Although today it is revered as a cult horror masterpiece, the degree of turmoil it caused the film-makers has now been uncovered in previously unpublished letters and early versions of the script.

The Storyline of The Wicker Man

The 1973 film revolves around a puritan police officer, played by the actor, who arrives on an isolated Scottish isle in search of a missing girl, but finds sinister local pagans who claim the girl was real. the actress was cast as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who tempts the God-fearing officer, with Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Creative Conflict Revealed

However, the working environment was tense and fractious, according to the letters. In a letter to the writer, Hardy stated: “How could you handle me this way?”

Shaffer was already famous with acclaimed works like Sleuth, but his typed draft of The Wicker Man reveals Hardy’s brutal cuts to his work.

Heavy edits include Summerisle’s lines in the final scene, originally starting: “The girl was only a small part – the visible element. Do not reproach yourself, it was impossible you could have known.”

Apart from the Creative Duo

Tensions boiled over beyond the main pair. A producer commented: “Shaffer’s talent was marred by excessive indulgence that impels him to prove himself overly smart.”

In a note to the production team, the director expressed frustration about the editor, the editing specialist: “I believe he likes the subject or style of the picture … and thinks that he has had enough of it.”

In one letter, Lee described the film as “appealing and enigmatic”, despite “dealing with a garrulous producer, an underpaid and harassed writer and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Forgotten Documents Found

A large collection of letters about the production was among six sack-loads of papers left in the loft of the former home of Hardy’s third wife, Caroline. Included were unpublished drafts, storyboards, on-set photographs and financial accounts, many of which show the struggles faced by the team.

Hardy’s sons Justin and Dominic, currently in their sixties, used these documents for an upcoming publication, titled Children of The Wicker Man. It reveals the extreme pressures faced by Hardy during the production of the film – including a health crisis to financial ruin.

Family Consequences

Initially, the film failed commercially and, following of its failure, the director abandoned his spouse and their children for a new life in America. Legal letters show Caroline 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 sell the family home and passed away in 1984, aged 51, battling alcoholism, never knowing that the project later turned into a global hit.

His son, an acclaimed documentary maker, described The Wicker Man as “the film that messed up our family”.

When someone reached out by a woman who had moved into his mother’s old house, asking whether he wished to collect the documents, his initial reaction was to suggest destroying “the bloody things”.

But then he and his stepbrother Dominic opened up the bags and realised the importance of what they held.

Revelations from the Papers

His brother, an art historian, said: “Every key figure are in there. We discovered the first draft by Shaffer, but with his father’s notes as filmmaker, ‘controlling’ the writer’s excess. Due to his legal background, he tended to overwrite and his father just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They respected each other and clashed frequently.”

Writing the book has brought some “resolution”, Justin stated.

Monetary Hardships

His family did not profit monetarily from the production, he added: “The bloody film has gone on to make so much money for others. It’s unfair. Dad agreed to take a small fee. Thus, he missed out on any of the upside. Christopher Lee never received payment from it either, despite the fact he performed his role for zero, to get out of his previous studio. So, in many ways, it’s been a very unkind film.”