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A script written by Anthony Shaffer and starring Christopher Lee and the lead actor could have been a dream project for director Robin Hardy while the filming of The Wicker Man more than 50 years ago.

Although today it is revered as an iconic horror film, the extent of turmoil it brought the film-makers has now been revealed in previously unpublished correspondence and script drafts.

The Plot of This Classic Film

The 1973 film revolves around a devout policeman, portrayed by the actor, who arrives on an isolated Scottish isle in search of a missing girl, but finds sinister local pagans who deny the girl was real. the actress was cast as an innkeeper’s sexually liberated daughter, who seduces the religious policeman, with Christopher Lee as the pagan aristocrat.

Production Tensions Revealed

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

The screenwriter was already famous with acclaimed works like Sleuth, but his typed draft of The Wicker Man reveals the director’s harsh edits to his work.

Heavy edits feature the aristocrat’s dialogue in the ending, which would have begun: “The girl was only a small part – the visible element. Do not reproach yourself, there was no way you could have known.”

Apart from Writer and Director

Conflict escalated outside the writer and director. One of the producers commented: “Shaffer’s talent has been offset by a self-indulgence that impels him to prove himself overly smart.”

In a note to the producers, the director complained about the editor, Eric Boyd-Perkins: “I don’t think he appreciates the subject or approach of the picture … and feels that he is tired of it.”

In a correspondence, Lee referred to the movie as “appealing and mysterious”, even with “having to cope with a talkative producer, an underpaid and harassed writer and a well-paid but difficult director”.

Lost Documents Uncovered

A large collection of letters relating to the production was part of six sack-loads of documents left in the loft of the former home of the director’s spouse, Caroline. Included were previously unseen scripts, visual plans, on-set photographs and financial accounts, many of which reflect the challenges experienced by the film-makers.

Hardy’s sons 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 throughout the making of the film – including a health crisis to financial ruin.

Family Fallout

At first, the film failed commercially and, following of its failure, Hardy abandoned his spouse and his family for a new life in America. Legal letters show his wife as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that he was indebted to her up to a large sum. She was forced to sell the family home and passed away in 1984, in her fifties, suffering from addiction, unaware that the project later turned into 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 resident who had moved into his mother’s old house, asking whether he wanted to collect the documents, his first thought was to propose destroying “all of it”.

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

Insights from the Papers

His brother, an art historian, said: “Every key figure are in there. We found the first draft by the writer, but with his father’s notes as director, ‘containing’ the writer’s excess. Because he was formerly a barrister, Shaffer did a lot of overexplaining and dad just went ‘cut, cut, cut’. They sort of respected each other and hated each other.”

Writing the book provided some “closure”, Justin said.

Financial Struggles

His family never benefited financially from the film, he added: “This movie earned so much money for others. It’s unfair. His father accepted a small fee. So he never received 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 his previous studio. Therefore, it was a harsh experience.”