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A screenplay crafted by the acclaimed writer and featuring a horror icon and the lead actor should have been an ideal venture for director Robin Hardy while the filming of The Wicker Man over 50 years ago.

Although today it is revered as an iconic horror film, the extent of misery it brought the production team has now been revealed in previously unpublished letters and script drafts.

The Plot of The Wicker Man

This 1973 movie centers on a devout policeman, portrayed by the actor, who arrives on a remote Scottish island looking for a lost child, but finds mysterious pagan residents who claim she ever existed. Britt Ekland was cast as an innkeeper’s sexually liberated daughter, who seduces the religious policeman, with Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Production Conflict Revealed

However, the working environment was tense and contentious, the documents show. In a message to the writer, Hardy wrote: “How dare you treat me this way?”

The screenwriter was already famous with masterpieces such as Sleuth, but his typed draft of The Wicker Man reveals Hardy’s brutal cuts to the screenplay.

Extensive crossings-out include Summerisle’s lines in the final scene, which would have begun: “The child was but the tip of the iceberg – the part that showed. Do not reproach yourself, it was impossible for you to know.”

Beyond the Creative Duo

Conflict escalated beyond the writer and director. One of the producers wrote: “The writer’s skill was marred by a self-indulgence that drove him to show he was overly smart.”

In a letter to the producers, Hardy expressed frustration about the editor, the editing specialist: “I believe he likes the theme or approach of the film … and thinks that he is tired of it.”

In a correspondence, Lee described the movie as “alluring and enigmatic”, even with “having to cope with a talkative producer, a stressed screenwriter and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Lost Documents Uncovered

A large collection of letters relating to the film was part of multiple bags of papers forgotten in the attic of the former home of the director’s spouse, his wife. Included were unpublished drafts, storyboards, production photos and financial accounts, many of which show the struggles faced by the team.

Hardy’s sons Justin and Dominic, currently in their sixties, used the material for an upcoming publication, titled Children of The Wicker Man. It reveals the extreme pressures faced by the director during the production of the film – from his heart attack to bankruptcy.

Family Fallout

Initially, the film failed commercially and, following of its failure, the director left his spouse and their children for a fresh start in America. Legal letters show Caroline as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that he owed her as much as £1m in today’s money. She was forced to give up the family home and died in the 1980s, aged 51, battling alcoholism, unaware that her film later turned into a global hit.

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 his mother’s old house, inquiring if he wanted to collect the sacks of papers, his initial reaction was to propose burning “the bloody things”.

But then he and his brother opened up the bags and realised the importance of what they held.

Insights from the Documents

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

Compiling the publication has brought some “closure”, the son stated.

Financial Struggles

The family never benefited monetarily from the production, he added: “The bloody film earned so much money for other people. It’s beyond a joke. His father accepted a small fee. Thus, he missed out on any of the upside. The actor also did not get any money from it as well, despite the fact he performed the film for zero, to leave Hammer [Horror films]. Therefore, it’s been a harsh experience.”