A script penned by the acclaimed writer and featuring a horror icon and Edward Woodward could have been an ideal venture for filmmaker Robin Hardy while the production of The Wicker Man more than half a century ago.
Even though it is now revered as a cult horror masterpiece, the degree of misery it brought the production team has now been revealed in newly discovered letters and early versions of the script.
The Storyline of This Classic Film
The 1973 film revolves around a devout policeman, portrayed by the actor, who arrives on a remote Scottish island in search of a lost child, but finds mysterious pagan residents who claim 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 Revealed
However, the working environment was frayed and fractious, the documents show. In a message to Shaffer, the director stated: “How could you treat me this way?”
The screenwriter had already made his name with acclaimed works such as Sleuth, but his script of The Wicker Man reveals the director’s harsh edits to his work.
Extensive crossings-out feature Summerisle’s lines in the ending, which would have begun: “The child was only a small part – the part that showed. Don’t blame yourself, there was no way you could have known.”
Beyond the Creative Duo
Conflict escalated outside the writer and director. One of the producers commented: “Shaffer’s talent was marred by a self-indulgence that drove him to show he was overly smart.”
In a letter to the production team, Hardy expressed frustration about the editor, the editing specialist: “I don’t think he appreciates the theme or approach of the film … and feels that he is tired of it.”
In a correspondence, Lee described the film as “appealing and mysterious”, despite “dealing with a talkative producer, an underpaid and harassed writer and an overpaid and hostile director”.
Forgotten Documents Uncovered
A large collection of letters relating to the film was part of six sack-loads of papers forgotten in the attic of the old house of Hardy’s third wife, Caroline. Included were previously unseen scripts, storyboards, production photos and budget records, which show the challenges experienced by the film-makers.
The director’s children his two sons, now 60 and 63, have drawn on these documents for an upcoming publication, titled Children of The Wicker Man. It reveals the extreme pressures faced by Hardy during the production of the movie – from his heart attack to financial ruin.
Personal Fallout
At first, the film failed commercially and, following of its failure, the director abandoned his wife and their children for a new life in the US. Court documents show Caroline as the film’s uncredited executive producer and that Hardy owed her up to a large sum. She had to sell the family home and died in the 1980s, aged 51, suffering from alcoholism, never knowing that her film eventually became an international success.
Justin, an acclaimed documentary maker, called The Wicker Man as “the film that messed up my family”.
When someone reached out by a woman who had moved into the former family home, asking whether he wanted to retrieve the documents, his first thought was to propose burning “the bloody things”.
But then he and his brother opened up the bags and understood the significance of their contents.
Insights from the Papers
His brother, an art historian, commented: “Every key figure are in there. We found the first draft by the writer, but with his father’s notes as director, ‘controlling’ the writer’s excess. Because he was formerly a barrister, he tended to overwrite and his father just went ‘cut, cut, cut’. They sort of respected each other and hated each other.”
Writing the book provided some “resolution”, Justin said.
Financial Hardships
His family did not profit monetarily from the film, he added: “The bloody film earned so much money for other people. It’s beyond a joke. Dad accepted five grand. Thus, he missed out on the profits. Christopher Lee also did not get payment from it either, despite the fact that he did the film for no pay, to get out of Hammer [Horror films]. Therefore, it was a very unkind film.”
