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A screenplay penned by the acclaimed writer and starring Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward should have been an ideal venture for filmmaker Robin Hardy while the filming of The Wicker Man more than half a century ago.

Although it is now revered as a cult horror masterpiece, the extent of turmoil it brought the production team is now revealed in newly discovered letters and early versions of the script.

The Plot of The Wicker Man

This 1973 movie centers on a puritan police officer, portrayed by the actor, who arrives on a remote Scottish island looking for a missing girl, but finds sinister local pagans who deny the girl was real. Britt Ekland appeared as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who seduces the God-fearing officer, with Lee as the pagan aristocrat.

Production Tensions Revealed

But the creative atmosphere was tense and fractious, according to the letters. In a message to the writer, the director wrote: “How could you treat me like this?”

Shaffer was already famous with masterpieces such as Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man shows Hardy’s brutal cuts to the screenplay.

Heavy edits include Summerisle’s lines in the final scene, originally starting: “The child was only a small part – the part that showed. Do not reproach yourself, it was impossible for you to know.”

Beyond Writer and Director

Conflict escalated outside the main pair. One of the producers wrote: “Shaffer’s talent was marred by a self-indulgence that drove him to show he was too clever by half.”

In a letter to the production team, the director complained about the film’s editor, Eric Boyd-Perkins: “I believe he likes the theme or style of the picture … and feels that he has had enough of it.”

In one letter, Christopher Lee described the movie as “alluring and mysterious”, despite “dealing with a talkative producer, a stressed screenwriter and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Lost Documents Uncovered

A large collection of letters relating to the production was among six sack-loads of documents left in the attic of the former home of Hardy’s third wife, his wife. There were also unpublished drafts, storyboards, on-set photographs and financial accounts, many of which reflect the challenges faced by the film-makers.

The director’s children 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 extreme pressures on the director during the production of the film – from his heart attack to bankruptcy.

Family Consequences

Initially, the film failed commercially and, following of its failure, the director abandoned his spouse and his family for a fresh start in America. Court documents show his wife as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that Hardy owed her up to £1m in today’s money. She had to sell the family home and passed away in the 1980s, aged 51, suffering from addiction, unaware that the project eventually became an international success.

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

When someone reached out by a woman who had moved into the former family home, asking whether he wanted to collect the documents, his first thought 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, ‘containing’ the writer’s excess. Because he was formerly a barrister, he tended to overwrite and dad just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They sort of loved each other and clashed frequently.”

Writing the book has brought some “closure”, the son stated.

Financial Struggles

His family never benefited monetarily from the film, he added: “The bloody film has gone on to make a fortune for other people. It’s beyond a joke. Dad agreed to take a small fee. So he never received the profits. Christopher Lee never received any money from it either, despite the fact he performed the film for zero, to leave Hammer [Horror films]. So, in many ways, it’s been a very unkind film.”