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A screenplay penned by the acclaimed writer and featuring Christopher Lee and the lead actor could have been a dream project for filmmaker Robin Hardy during the production of The Wicker Man more than half a century ago.

Even though today it is revered as a cult horror masterpiece, the degree of turmoil it caused the film-makers has now been uncovered in newly discovered letters and early versions of the script.

The Storyline of The Wicker Man

This 1973 movie centers on a devout policeman, played by Edward Woodward, who arrives on an isolated Scottish isle looking for a lost child, but finds sinister local pagans who deny she ever existed. Britt Ekland appeared as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who seduces the religious policeman, with Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Creative Conflict Uncovered

However, the working environment was frayed and contentious, according to the letters. In a letter to Shaffer, Hardy stated: “How dare you handle me like this?”

Shaffer was already famous with acclaimed works like Sleuth, but his typed draft of The Wicker Man reveals Hardy’s brutal cuts to the screenplay.

Heavy edits include the aristocrat’s dialogue in the ending, which would have begun: “The child was only a small part – the part that showed. Do not reproach yourself, there was no way for you to know.”

Apart from Writer and Director

Tensions boiled over beyond the main pair. A producer commented: “Shaffer’s talent was marred by a self-indulgence that impels him to show he was overly smart.”

In a letter to the producers, Hardy complained about the editor, the editing specialist: “I believe he appreciates the subject or style of the picture … and feels that he has had enough of it.”

In one letter, Christopher Lee described the movie as “appealing and mysterious”, despite “having to cope with a talkative producer, a stressed screenwriter and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Lost Documents Found

A large collection of letters about the film was among six sack-loads of papers forgotten in the attic of the old house of the director’s spouse, Caroline. Included were unpublished drafts, visual plans, on-set photographs and budget records, which reflect the challenges experienced by the film-makers.

The director’s children Justin and Dominic, currently in their sixties, used the material for an upcoming publication, called Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the intense stress faced by the director during the production of the film – including a health crisis to financial ruin.

Personal Consequences

Initially, the movie failed commercially and, following of its failure, the director left his wife and their children for a new life in America. Legal letters show his wife as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that he was indebted to her up to a large sum. She was forced to give up their house and died in the 1980s, aged 51, suffering from addiction, unaware that the project eventually became an international success.

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

When someone reached out by a resident living in the former family home, asking whether he wished to collect the documents, his initial reaction was to suggest destroying “the bloody things”.

But then he and his brother opened up the bags and realised the importance of their contents.

Revelations from the Documents

Dominic, a scholar, said: “All the big players are in there. We found the first draft by Shaffer, but with dad’s annotations as director, ‘containing’ the writer’s excess. Due to his legal background, he tended to overwrite and his father just went ‘cut, cut, cut’. They respected each other and hated each other.”

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

Financial Hardships

The family never benefited monetarily from the film, he explained: “This movie earned so much money for others. It’s unfair. His father agreed to take a small fee. Thus, he missed out on any of the upside. The actor also did not get any money from it either, despite the fact that he did his role for no pay, to get out of Hammer [Horror films]. So, in many ways, it was a very unkind film.”