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A screenplay penned by the acclaimed writer and starring a horror icon and Edward Woodward was expected to be an ideal venture for director Robin Hardy during the production of The Wicker Man more than half a century ago.

Even though today it is revered as an iconic horror film, the degree of misery it caused the production team has now been uncovered in previously unpublished correspondence and early versions of the script.

The Plot of The Wicker Man

This 1973 movie revolves around a devout policeman, played by Edward Woodward, who arrives on an isolated Scottish isle looking for a lost child, but finds mysterious pagan residents who claim she ever existed. Britt Ekland appeared as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who tempts the religious policeman, with Christopher Lee as the pagan aristocrat.

Creative Tensions Uncovered

But the creative atmosphere was tense and contentious, the documents show. In a letter to the writer, Hardy wrote: “How could you handle me this way?”

Shaffer had already made his name with masterpieces like Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man reveals Hardy’s brutal cuts to his work.

Extensive crossings-out include the aristocrat’s dialogue in the ending, originally starting: “The girl was but the tip of the iceberg – the visible element. Don’t blame yourself, it was impossible you could have known.”

Beyond the Creative Duo

Conflict escalated beyond the writer and director. A producer wrote: “Shaffer’s talent was marred by excessive indulgence that drove him to prove himself overly smart.”

In a letter to the producers, Hardy expressed frustration about the editor, the editing specialist: “I don’t think he appreciates the subject or style of the film … and feels that he is tired of it.”

In a correspondence, Lee referred to the movie as “appealing and enigmatic”, even with “having to cope with a garrulous producer, a stressed screenwriter and a well-paid but difficult director”.

Forgotten Papers Found

An extensive correspondence about the production was part of six sack-loads of papers forgotten in the loft of the old house of the director’s spouse, his wife. Included were unpublished drafts, storyboards, on-set photographs and budget records, many of which show the challenges experienced by the film-makers.

Hardy’s sons his two sons, currently in their sixties, used these documents for a forthcoming book, titled Children of The Wicker Man. It reveals the extreme pressures on the director throughout the making of the film – including a health crisis to bankruptcy.

Family Fallout

Initially, the film failed commercially and, following of its failure, the director abandoned his spouse and his family for a new life in the US. 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 died in the 1980s, aged 51, suffering from alcoholism, unaware that her film eventually became a global hit.

His son, a Bafta-nominated historian film-maker, called The Wicker Man as “the film that ruined my family”.

When he was contacted by a resident who had moved into his mother’s old house, asking whether he wished to collect the sacks of papers, his initial reaction was to propose destroying “the bloody things”.

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

Insights from the Papers

His brother, a scholar, commented: “All the big players is represented. We found the first draft by Shaffer, but with dad’s annotations as filmmaker, ‘containing’ the writer’s excess. Because he was formerly a barrister, Shaffer tended to overwrite and dad just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They sort of respected each other and clashed frequently.”

Writing the book provided some “resolution”, the son stated.

Monetary Hardships

The family never benefited financially from the film, he explained: “The bloody film has gone on to make a fortune for other people. It’s unfair. His father accepted a small fee. Thus, he missed out on any of the upside. Christopher Lee also did not get payment from it either, although he performed his role for zero, to leave Hammer [Horror films]. Therefore, it was a very unkind film.”