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A screenplay penned by Anthony Shaffer and starring a horror icon and the lead actor was expected to be a dream project for filmmaker Robin Hardy during the production of The Wicker Man more than 50 years ago.

Even though it is now revered as an iconic horror film, the degree of misery it caused the production team has now been revealed in previously unpublished letters and script drafts.

The Plot of The Wicker Man

The 1973 film revolves around a devout policeman, played by the actor, who travels on an isolated Scottish isle looking for a lost child, but finds sinister local pagans who claim she ever existed. Britt Ekland was cast as an innkeeper’s sexually liberated daughter, who tempts the God-fearing officer, with Lee as the pagan aristocrat.

Production Tensions Uncovered

But the creative atmosphere was tense and contentious, according to the letters. In a letter to the writer, Hardy stated: “How dare you treat me like this?”

The screenwriter was already famous with masterpieces like Sleuth, but his typed draft of The Wicker Man shows the director’s harsh edits to the screenplay.

Extensive crossings-out include Summerisle’s lines in the final scene, which would have begun: “The child was only a small part – the part that showed. Do not reproach yourself, it was impossible you could have known.”

Apart from Writer and Director

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

In a note to the producers, Hardy expressed frustration about the film’s editor, the editing specialist: “I don’t think he likes the subject or style of the film … and thinks that he has had enough of it.”

In one letter, Christopher Lee referred to the film as “appealing and mysterious”, even with “having to cope with a talkative producer, a stressed screenwriter and a well-paid but difficult director”.

Lost Papers Uncovered

A large collection of letters relating to the production was part of six sack-loads of documents forgotten in the attic of the former home of Hardy’s third wife, Caroline. Included were previously unseen scripts, storyboards, production photos and financial accounts, which reflect the challenges experienced by the team.

Hardy’s sons his two sons, now 60 and 63, used these documents for an upcoming publication, titled Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the extreme pressures faced by the director during the making of the film – including a health crisis to bankruptcy.

Family Fallout

At first, the film failed commercially and, following the disappointment, Hardy abandoned his spouse and his family for a new life in the US. Court documents show Caroline as an unacknowledged producer and that Hardy was indebted to her up to a large sum. She was forced to give up the family home and passed away in 1984, in her fifties, suffering from addiction, unaware that her film later turned into an international success.

His son, a Bafta-nominated historian film-maker, described The Wicker Man as “the movie that messed up my family”.

When he was contacted by a woman who had moved into the former family home, inquiring if he wished to retrieve the sacks of papers, his initial reaction was to propose destroying “the bloody things”.

But then he and his brother examined the bags and understood the importance of their contents.

Revelations from the Documents

Dominic, an art historian, commented: “All the big players are in there. We found the first draft by the writer, but with his father’s notes as director, ‘controlling’ Shaffer’s overexuberance. Because he was formerly a barrister, he did a lot of overexplaining and his father just went ‘cut, cut, cut’. They loved each other and clashed frequently.”

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

Financial Struggles

The family did not profit monetarily from the production, he added: “This movie has gone on to make a fortune for others. It’s beyond a joke. His father agreed to take five grand. Thus, he missed out on any of the upside. Christopher Lee never received any money from it as well, despite the fact he performed the film for zero, to get out of Hammer [Horror films]. Therefore, it’s been a very unkind film.”