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

Although today it is revered as an iconic horror film, the extent of turmoil it caused the production team has now been uncovered in newly discovered letters and early versions of the script.

The Plot of This Classic Film

This 1973 movie revolves around a puritan police officer, played by the actor, who travels on an isolated Scottish isle looking for a lost child, only to encounter mysterious pagan residents who claim she ever existed. the actress was cast as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who seduces the God-fearing officer, with Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Creative Tensions Uncovered

But the creative atmosphere was tense and contentious, the documents show. In a letter to Shaffer, Hardy wrote: “How could you treat me this way?”

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

Heavy edits feature the aristocrat’s dialogue in the ending, which would have begun: “The girl was only a small part – the part that showed. Do not reproach yourself, it was impossible for you to know.”

Beyond the Creative Duo

Conflict escalated outside the writer and director. One of the producers wrote: “The writer’s skill has been offset by excessive indulgence that drove him to prove himself too clever by half.”

In a letter to the production team, Hardy expressed frustration about the film’s editor, Eric Boyd-Perkins: “I don’t think he appreciates the theme or approach of the picture … and feels that he has had enough of it.”

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

Lost Documents Found

A large collection of letters about the film was among multiple bags of documents left in the loft of the old house of the director’s spouse, Caroline. There were also previously unseen scripts, visual plans, on-set photographs and budget records, many of which reflect the challenges faced by the film-makers.

Hardy’s sons Justin and Dominic, currently in their sixties, have drawn on these documents for a forthcoming book, called Children of The Wicker Man. It reveals the extreme pressures faced by the director during the production of the movie – from his heart attack to financial ruin.

Family Consequences

Initially, the film failed commercially and, in the aftermath the disappointment, Hardy abandoned his spouse and their children for a fresh start in America. Legal letters reveal Caroline as an unacknowledged producer and that he was indebted to her as much as £1m in today’s money. She had to sell their house and died in 1984, aged 51, suffering from addiction, unaware that the project later turned into an international success.

His son, a Bafta-nominated historian film-maker, called The Wicker Man as “the film that ruined my family”.

When someone reached out by a resident living in the former family home, asking whether he wanted to collect the documents, his first thought was to propose destroying “the bloody things”.

But afterward he and his stepbrother Dominic examined the bags and understood the significance of what they held.

Revelations from the Documents

Dominic, an art historian, commented: “Every key figure is represented. We discovered an original script by the writer, but with dad’s annotations as director, ‘controlling’ Shaffer’s overexuberance. Because he was formerly a barrister, Shaffer tended to overwrite and his father just went ‘cut, cut, cut’. They sort of respected each other and clashed frequently.”

Writing the book has brought some “closure”, the son said.

Monetary Struggles

The family never benefited financially from the film, he added: “This movie has gone on to make a fortune for other people. It’s unfair. Dad accepted a small fee. So he never received the profits. The actor never received payment from it as well, although he performed his role for no pay, to leave his previous studio. Therefore, it was a harsh experience.”