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A screenplay penned by Anthony Shaffer and starring a horror icon and Edward Woodward should have been an ideal venture for director Robin Hardy while the filming of The Wicker Man over 50 years ago.

Even though today it is revered as a cult horror masterpiece, the degree of turmoil it caused the production team is now uncovered in previously unpublished correspondence and script drafts.

The Storyline of This Classic Film

This 1973 movie centers on a puritan police officer, portrayed by Edward Woodward, who travels on an isolated Scottish isle looking for a lost child, only to encounter mysterious pagan residents who deny she ever existed. the actress was cast as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who tempts the God-fearing officer, with Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Creative Tensions Revealed

However, the working environment was tense and fractious, according to the letters. In a letter to Shaffer, Hardy wrote: “How could you treat me this way?”

Shaffer had already made his name with acclaimed works such as Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man reveals the director’s harsh edits to his work.

Heavy edits include the aristocrat’s dialogue in the ending, which would have begun: “The girl was only a small part – the visible element. Don’t blame yourself, it was impossible you could have known.”

Apart from Writer and Director

Tensions boiled over beyond the main pair. A producer wrote: “The writer’s skill was marred by excessive indulgence that impels him to prove himself overly smart.”

In a letter to the producers, Hardy expressed frustration about the editor, the editing specialist: “I believe he appreciates the subject or approach of the film … and thinks that he has had enough of it.”

In one letter, Christopher Lee referred to the movie as “appealing and mysterious”, even with “having to cope with a garrulous producer, a stressed screenwriter and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Forgotten Documents Found

An extensive correspondence relating to the production was part of multiple bags of papers left in the attic of the former home of the director’s spouse, Caroline. There were also unpublished drafts, visual plans, on-set photographs and budget records, many of which reflect the struggles experienced by the film-makers.

Hardy’s sons Justin and Dominic, now 60 and 63, used these documents for an upcoming publication, titled Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the intense stress faced by Hardy throughout the production of the movie – including a health crisis to bankruptcy.

Personal Fallout

Initially, the film was a box office flop and, following of its failure, Hardy left his spouse and their children for a fresh start in the US. Court documents show his wife as an unacknowledged producer and that he owed her up to a large sum. She had to sell the family home and died in the 1980s, aged 51, suffering from addiction, unaware that her film eventually became an international success.

His son, an acclaimed documentary maker, called The Wicker Man as “the movie that messed up my family”.

When he was contacted by a resident living in the former family home, inquiring if he wanted to retrieve the sacks of papers, his initial reaction was to suggest burning “all of it”.

But afterward he and his brother opened up the sacks and understood the importance of their contents.

Revelations from the Documents

Dominic, a scholar, commented: “Every key figure is represented. We discovered the first draft by Shaffer, but with his father’s notes as filmmaker, ‘controlling’ Shaffer’s overexuberance. Because he was formerly a barrister, he did a lot of overexplaining and his father just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They loved each other and clashed frequently.”

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

Financial Struggles

His family did not profit monetarily from the production, he added: “This movie has gone on to make a fortune for other people. It’s unfair. Dad agreed to take five grand. Thus, he missed out on the profits. Christopher Lee never received payment from it as well, despite the fact he performed the film for no pay, to get out of Hammer [Horror films]. So, in many ways, it’s been a harsh experience.”