🔗 Share this article

A script crafted by the acclaimed writer and starring a horror icon and Edward Woodward could have been an ideal venture for director Robin Hardy during the filming of The Wicker Man over 50 years ago.

Although today it is revered as a cult horror masterpiece, the degree of turmoil it brought the production team is now uncovered in previously unpublished correspondence and early versions of the script.

The Plot of This Classic Film

The 1973 film centers on a puritan police officer, portrayed by the actor, who travels on an isolated Scottish isle looking for a missing girl, but finds mysterious pagan residents who claim she ever existed. Britt Ekland was cast as an innkeeper’s sexually liberated daughter, who tempts the religious policeman, with Lee as the pagan aristocrat.

Production Conflict Uncovered

But the creative atmosphere was tense and fractious, according to the letters. In a letter to Shaffer, Hardy stated: “How could you handle me like this?”

The screenwriter had already made his name with masterpieces like Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man shows Hardy’s brutal cuts to the screenplay.

Extensive crossings-out feature Summerisle’s lines in the ending, originally starting: “The girl was but the tip of the iceberg – the visible element. Do not reproach yourself, it was impossible for you to know.”

Beyond the Creative Duo

Conflict escalated beyond the main pair. A producer wrote: “The writer’s skill has been offset by a self-indulgence that impels him to prove himself too clever by half.”

In a note to the producers, Hardy complained about the editor, the editing specialist: “I believe he appreciates the theme or style of the film … and feels that he is tired of it.”

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

Lost Documents Uncovered

A large collection of letters about the film was part of multiple bags of papers left in the attic of the former home of the director’s spouse, Caroline. Included were previously unseen scripts, visual plans, on-set photographs and budget records, which reflect the challenges faced by the team.

Hardy’s sons his two sons, now 60 and 63, used these documents for an upcoming publication, called Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the extreme pressures faced by Hardy during the making of the movie – from his heart attack to bankruptcy.

Family Consequences

At first, the film failed commercially and, following of its failure, Hardy left his spouse and his family for a new life in America. Legal letters reveal his wife as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that he was indebted to her as much as a large sum. She was forced to give up their house and passed away in the 1980s, aged 51, suffering from addiction, never knowing that her film eventually became an international success.

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

When someone reached out by a woman who had moved into the former family home, asking whether he wished to collect the sacks of papers, his first thought was to suggest burning “the bloody things”.

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

Revelations from the Documents

Dominic, an art historian, commented: “All the big players are in there. We discovered an original script by the writer, but with dad’s annotations as filmmaker, ‘containing’ the writer’s excess. Due to his legal background, he tended to overwrite and his father just went ‘edit, edit, edit’. They sort of loved each other and hated each other.”

Compiling the publication has brought some “resolution”, Justin stated.

Monetary Hardships

The family never benefited monetarily from the film, he added: “The bloody film has gone on to make a fortune for other people. It’s beyond a joke. His father accepted five grand. So he never received any of the upside. Christopher Lee never received payment from it as well, although he performed the film for zero, to leave his previous studio. Therefore, it was a harsh experience.”