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A screenplay penned by the acclaimed writer and featuring Christopher Lee and the lead actor was expected to be an ideal venture for filmmaker Robin Hardy during the production of The Wicker Man more than half a century ago.

Although today it is celebrated as a cult horror masterpiece, the extent of misery it brought the film-makers has now been revealed in newly discovered correspondence and early versions of the script.

The Plot of The Wicker Man

The 1973 film revolves around a puritan police officer, portrayed by the actor, who arrives on an isolated Scottish isle in search of a missing girl, only to encounter mysterious pagan residents who claim the girl was real. the actress was cast as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who seduces the God-fearing officer, with Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Production Conflict Revealed

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

The screenwriter had already made his name with acclaimed works such as Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man reveals Hardy’s brutal cuts to his work.

Heavy edits feature Summerisle’s lines in the final scene, originally starting: “The girl was only a small part – the visible element. Do not reproach yourself, there was no way for you to know.”

Apart from Writer and Director

Conflict escalated beyond the writer and director. A producer wrote: “Shaffer’s talent has been offset by excessive indulgence that drove him to prove himself overly smart.”

In a letter to the production team, Hardy expressed frustration about the film’s editor, the editing specialist: “I believe he likes the subject or style of the picture … and thinks that he is tired of it.”

In a correspondence, Lee referred to the film as “appealing and mysterious”, despite “having to cope with a talkative producer, an underpaid and harassed writer and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Lost Documents Found

A large collection of letters about the production was part of six sack-loads of documents forgotten in the loft of the old house of Hardy’s third wife, Caroline. There were also unpublished drafts, visual plans, on-set photographs and financial accounts, many of which show the struggles faced by the team.

The director’s children his two sons, now 60 and 63, used the material for a forthcoming book, titled Children of The Wicker Man. It reveals the extreme pressures on the director during the making of the film – including a health crisis to bankruptcy.

Family Consequences

At first, the film failed commercially and, in the aftermath the disappointment, Hardy left his wife and his family for a new life in the US. Legal letters reveal Caroline as an unacknowledged producer and that Hardy owed her up to £1m in today’s money. She was forced to sell their house and died in 1984, aged 51, suffering from addiction, unaware that her film eventually became an international success.

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

When he was contacted by a woman who had moved into his mother’s old house, inquiring if he wanted to retrieve the documents, his initial reaction was to suggest destroying “the bloody things”.

But afterward he and his brother opened up the sacks and understood the significance of what they held.

Insights from the Papers

His brother, a scholar, commented: “Every key figure is represented. We discovered an original script by Shaffer, but with his father’s notes as filmmaker, ‘controlling’ the writer’s excess. Due to his legal background, he tended to overwrite and his father just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They sort of respected each other and hated each other.”

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

Financial Hardships

His family never benefited monetarily from the production, he explained: “The bloody film has gone on to make a fortune for others. It’s unfair. His father agreed to take a small fee. Thus, he missed out on any of the upside. Christopher Lee never received any money from it as well, despite the fact he performed his role for no pay, to leave Hammer [Horror films]. Therefore, it’s been a harsh experience.”