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A script penned by Anthony Shaffer and featuring Christopher Lee and the lead actor should have been a dream project for filmmaker Robin Hardy while the filming of The Wicker Man more than half a century ago.

Although today it is revered as an iconic horror film, the degree of turmoil it caused the production team is now revealed in previously unpublished correspondence and early versions of the script.

The Storyline of The Wicker Man

The 1973 film revolves around a devout policeman, portrayed by the actor, who travels on a remote Scottish island in search of a missing girl, only to encounter sinister local pagans who deny she ever existed. the actress appeared as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who tempts the God-fearing officer, with Christopher Lee as the pagan aristocrat.

Production Tensions Revealed

However, the working environment was frayed and contentious, the documents show. In a message to the writer, the director wrote: “How dare you handle me like this?”

The screenwriter had already made his name with acclaimed works like Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man shows Hardy’s brutal cuts to the screenplay.

Heavy edits include the aristocrat’s dialogue in the final scene, which would have begun: “The girl was but the tip of the iceberg – the part that showed. Don’t blame yourself, there was no way you could have known.”

Beyond the Creative Duo

Tensions boiled over beyond the main pair. A producer wrote: “The writer’s skill has been offset by a self-indulgence that drove him to show he was overly smart.”

In a note to the production team, the director expressed frustration about the editor, the editing specialist: “I don’t think he appreciates the theme 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”, despite “having to cope with a garrulous producer, a stressed screenwriter and a well-paid but difficult director”.

Forgotten Papers Uncovered

An extensive correspondence relating to the film was part of six sack-loads of documents left in the attic of the former home of the director’s spouse, Caroline. There were also previously unseen scripts, visual plans, production photos and budget records, which reflect the struggles experienced by the film-makers.

Hardy’s sons his two sons, now 60 and 63, used the material for a forthcoming book, titled Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the intense stress on the director during the making of the movie – from his heart attack to bankruptcy.

Family Consequences

Initially, the film was a box office flop and, in the aftermath of its failure, Hardy abandoned his spouse and his family for a fresh start in the US. Court documents show Caroline as an unacknowledged producer and that Hardy owed her up to a large sum. She was forced to sell the family home and passed away in the 1980s, in her fifties, battling alcoholism, unaware that her film eventually became an international success.

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

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

But then he and his stepbrother Dominic opened up the sacks and understood the significance of what they held.

Insights from the Papers

His brother, an art historian, said: “All the big players are in there. We found the first draft by Shaffer, but with dad’s annotations as filmmaker, ‘controlling’ 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 clashed frequently.”

Compiling the publication has brought some “closure”, Justin said.

Monetary Struggles

His family did not profit financially from the production, he added: “The bloody film earned so much money for other people. It’s unfair. His father accepted five grand. So he never received any of the upside. The actor never received any money from it as well, although he performed the film for no pay, to get out of Hammer [Horror films]. So, in many ways, it’s been a harsh experience.”