Unveiling this Struggle Between Director and Writer of The Wicker Man

A screenplay written by Anthony Shaffer and starring a horror icon and Edward Woodward should have been an ideal venture for director Robin Hardy during the filming of The Wicker Man over half a century ago.

Although it is now revered as a cult horror masterpiece, the extent of turmoil it brought the film-makers is now revealed in newly discovered letters and script drafts.

The Storyline of This Classic Film

This 1973 movie centers on a puritan police officer, portrayed by Edward Woodward, who arrives on an isolated Scottish isle in search of a missing girl, only to encounter mysterious pagan residents who deny the girl was real. the actress appeared as the daughter of a local innkeeper, who seduces the God-fearing officer, with Lee as Lord Summerisle.

Creative Tensions Uncovered

However, the working environment was tense and fractious, the documents show. In a letter to the writer, Hardy stated: “How dare you handle me this way?”

Shaffer had already made his name with masterpieces like Sleuth, but his typed draft of The Wicker Man reveals the director’s harsh edits to the screenplay.

Heavy edits include the aristocrat’s dialogue in the final scene, originally starting: “The girl was only a small part – the visible element. Don’t blame yourself, there was no way for you to know.”

Beyond the Creative Duo

Tensions boiled over outside the writer and director. A producer wrote: “The writer’s skill has been offset by a self-indulgence that impels him to show he was too clever by half.”

In a letter to the producers, Hardy complained about the editor, Eric Boyd-Perkins: “I believe he likes the theme or approach of the picture … and feels that he has had enough of it.”

In a correspondence, Lee referred to the movie as “alluring and mysterious”, even with “dealing with a garrulous producer, a stressed screenwriter and an overpaid and hostile director”.

Lost Documents Found

A large collection of letters relating to the film was among six sack-loads of documents left in the loft of the former home of the director’s spouse, Caroline. Included were previously unseen scripts, visual plans, on-set photographs and budget records, many of which show the challenges experienced by the team.

Hardy’s sons his two sons, now 60 and 63, have drawn on these documents for an upcoming publication, titled Children of The Wicker Man. The book uncovers the intense stress faced by Hardy throughout the production of the film – including a health crisis to bankruptcy.

Family Fallout

Initially, the movie was a box office flop and, following of its failure, Hardy left his wife and his family for a fresh start in the US. Court documents reveal Caroline as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that he owed her up to a large sum. She was forced to give up the family home and died in the 1980s, in her fifties, battling alcoholism, never knowing that the project later turned into an international success.

His son, a Bafta-nominated historian film-maker, called 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 wished to retrieve the documents, his first thought was to propose destroying “all of it”.

But then he and his stepbrother Dominic opened up the sacks and realised the significance 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 his father’s notes as director, ‘containing’ Shaffer’s overexuberance. Due to his legal background, he did a lot of overexplaining and his father just went ‘cut, cut, cut’. They sort of respected each other and clashed frequently.”

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

Financial Hardships

His family never benefited monetarily from the production, he added: “The bloody film has gone on to make a fortune for others. It’s beyond a joke. His father agreed to take five grand. Thus, he missed out on the profits. Christopher Lee also did not get payment from it as well, although that he did the film for no pay, to get out of his previous studio. Therefore, it was a harsh experience.”