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A script penned by the acclaimed writer and starring a horror icon and the lead actor could have been a dream project for director Robin Hardy during the filming of The Wicker Man more than 50 years ago.

Even though it is now celebrated as an iconic horror film, the extent of misery it caused the production team has now been revealed in previously unpublished correspondence and script drafts.

The Storyline of This Classic Film

The 1973 film centers on a puritan police officer, portrayed by the actor, who arrives on a remote Scottish island looking for a lost child, only to encounter sinister local pagans who claim the girl was real. the actress was cast as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who seduces the religious policeman, with Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Production Tensions Revealed

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

Shaffer had already made his name with masterpieces like Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man shows the director’s harsh edits to his work.

Extensive crossings-out include the aristocrat’s dialogue in the ending, originally starting: “The child was but the tip of the iceberg – the part that showed. Do not reproach yourself, it was impossible you could have known.”

Beyond Writer and Director

Tensions boiled over outside the writer and director. One of the producers wrote: “Shaffer’s talent has been offset by a self-indulgence that impels him to show he was overly smart.”

In a note to the production team, Hardy expressed frustration about the editor, the editing specialist: “I don’t think he likes the theme or approach of the film … and feels that he is tired of it.”

In a correspondence, Christopher Lee described the film as “appealing and enigmatic”, despite “having to cope with a garrulous producer, a stressed screenwriter and a well-paid but difficult director”.

Forgotten Papers Found

An extensive correspondence relating to the film was part of multiple bags of documents forgotten in the loft of the former home of Hardy’s third wife, his wife. Included were previously unseen scripts, storyboards, production photos and financial accounts, which reflect the challenges experienced by the film-makers.

The director’s children Justin and Dominic, now 60 and 63, used the material for an upcoming publication, called Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the extreme pressures faced by the director during the making of the movie – including a health crisis to financial ruin.

Family Fallout

At first, the movie failed commercially and, following of its failure, the director left his spouse and his family for a fresh start in America. Legal letters show Caroline as an unacknowledged producer and that he owed her as much as a large sum. She was forced to sell the family home and died in the 1980s, aged 51, suffering from addiction, unaware that the project eventually became an international success.

His son, an acclaimed documentary maker, described The Wicker Man as “the movie that ruined 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 first thought was to propose burning “the bloody things”.

But then he and his brother opened up the sacks and understood the importance 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, ‘containing’ Shaffer’s overexuberance. Due to his legal background, Shaffer tended to overwrite and his father just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They respected each other and clashed frequently.”

Compiling the publication provided some “closure”, the son said.

Financial Hardships

His family never benefited monetarily from the film, he explained: “This movie has gone on to make a fortune for other people. It’s unfair. His father accepted a small fee. Thus, he missed out on any of the upside. The actor also did not get payment from it as well, although he performed the film for no pay, to get out of Hammer [Horror films]. Therefore, it’s been a harsh experience.”