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A screenplay penned by Anthony Shaffer and starring Christopher Lee and the lead actor could have been an ideal venture for filmmaker Robin Hardy during the filming of The Wicker Man over 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as a cult horror masterpiece, the degree of turmoil it caused the film-makers has now been uncovered in previously unpublished letters and script drafts.

The Plot of This Classic Film

The 1973 film centers on a puritan police officer, portrayed by Edward Woodward, who travels on an isolated Scottish isle in search of a lost child, but finds sinister local pagans who deny the girl was real. the actress appeared as an innkeeper’s sexually liberated daughter, who tempts the God-fearing officer, with Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Creative Conflict Uncovered

But the creative atmosphere was frayed and fractious, the documents show. In a message to Shaffer, Hardy stated: “How dare you treat me like this?”

The screenwriter had already made his name with masterpieces such as Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man shows the director’s harsh edits to his work.

Heavy edits feature Summerisle’s lines in the ending, originally starting: “The child was but the tip of the iceberg – the part that showed. Do not reproach yourself, it was impossible you could have known.”

Apart from the Creative Duo

Tensions boiled over outside the writer and director. One of the producers wrote: “The writer’s skill was marred by a self-indulgence that drove him to prove himself overly smart.”

In a note to the producers, Hardy complained about the editor, the editing specialist: “I don’t think he likes the theme or style of the picture … and feels that he is tired of it.”

In a correspondence, Lee described the movie as “appealing and mysterious”, despite “dealing with a garrulous producer, a stressed screenwriter and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Forgotten Papers Found

An extensive correspondence relating to the film was among multiple bags of papers left in the loft of the former home of Hardy’s third wife, Caroline. Included were unpublished drafts, visual plans, production photos and budget records, many of which reflect the challenges faced by the film-makers.

Hardy’s sons Justin and Dominic, currently in their sixties, used the material for a forthcoming book, titled Children of The Wicker Man. It reveals the intense stress faced by Hardy during the making of the film – from his heart attack to bankruptcy.

Family Consequences

Initially, the film was a box office flop and, in the aftermath the disappointment, Hardy abandoned his spouse and his family for a new life in the US. Legal letters show his wife as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that Hardy was indebted to her up to £1m in today’s money. She was forced to give up their house and died in 1984, aged 51, suffering from alcoholism, unaware that the project later turned into a global hit.

His son, an acclaimed documentary maker, described The Wicker Man as “the movie that messed up our 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 first thought was to propose burning “all of it”.

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

Revelations from the Papers

His brother, a scholar, commented: “All the big players are in there. We found an original script by Shaffer, but with dad’s annotations as filmmaker, ‘controlling’ the writer’s excess. Because he was formerly a barrister, he did a lot of overexplaining and his father just went ‘cut, cut, cut’. They sort of loved each other and hated each other.”

Compiling the publication has brought some “resolution”, the son said.

Monetary Struggles

His family did not profit monetarily from the production, he explained: “This movie has gone on to make so much money for other people. It’s beyond a joke. His father agreed to take a small fee. So he never received the profits. The actor never received payment from it either, despite the fact he performed his role for no pay, to get out of his previous studio. So, in many ways, it was a very unkind film.”