Download a scan of Ingrid Pitt's "original script." Ingrid sold photocopies of this script on her website. (Two pics of it on this wiki: page A and B - cast lists)
It’s marked as an “original shooting script 1974.” 1974?
Pages A, B and C list the cast, D the opening credits. Successive pages list scenes.
Does anyone know what the numbers after almost all the cast members mean? Asterisks after most names.
Cast[]
page A[]
CHARACTERS
Notes
Note the roles of Lady Publican, the two fisherman, whore and piano player of the missing mainland pub scene, Mrs Grimmond, maid in restaurant, Duggald and the teenage couples on the green.
I think that’s the first I’ve heard of the lady publican and the maid in the restaurant.
Ross Campbell ended up as the Communicant in the credits, a part that was cut as well.
Charles Kearney is credited as the butcher in the film.
Ian Wilson, who is credited as the Lady Publican here ended up as the other Communicant in the film credits.
Of the two fishermen who gripe as Howie takes off in a scene that never made it to the film, the one who’s listed, James Mulvaney, never made it to the film credits.
John MacGreagor, credited as the Harbor Master here, ends up as the Baker in the film.
Kevin Collins, another possible Harbor Master, ends up as an Old Fisherman.
Myra Forsyth, May Morrison in this script, ends up as Mrs Grimmond in the film, never to be included in the actual cut.
Jennifer Martin did end up as Myrtle.
Helen Norman, slated to be Mrs Grimmond in this, ends up as a villager who scolds Howie in the beginning of the house search.
Janie Norman, 13 at the time, was planned for Holly. Her mother turned down the part because it involved stripping (as a fire dancer?).
Willie Joss as planned for Alder MacGreggor here. (spelled MacGreggor here while Willow is spelled MacGregor…)
The maid in the restaurant, Juliet Gadzow, ended up as a villager in the film credits.
Terry Cavers, also considered, didn’t make it into the film.
Nor did Joseph Gregg who was to play Duggald. The role of Duggald isn’t in the credits either. (Turns out he is the guy who Oak lifts in the pub.)
Martin Cochrane, listed as an “onlooker in bar”, didn’t make it into the movie.
page B[]
CHARACTERS
*Note the numbers on the last entry are for both lines… No number for Broome. A few of the beginning numbers are illegible.
Notes:[]
Only two people on this list ended up in the movie, Walter Carr and Ingrid.
There’s a UK actor named Martin Black who was in movies around that time. Don’t know if he’s the same one.
Ian Thomas mentions that Terry Cavers was known by Lesley Mackie as a drama student. “McCekie” is a misspelling of “Mackie.”
There’s a Scot named John Young who was in other films such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail and who knows how many others out there with that name…
John Morton, too many leads to follow….
Arthur Baldland (Broome) - Can’t find anything on him. Is that the correct name? Was hard to read.
I count 16 boys used for the maypole but it’s pretty hard to be sure. (I counted ribbons as well.) There are some pics of some of them at a reunion at the Ellangowan (can’t find those pics now)
The girls in the schoolroom are the same ones as in the fire dance?! (Look closely and you’ll see one girl on the far left who’s not banging out the rhythm. She is resting her head in her left hand.) There are 11 girls seen in the classroom, with Rowan’s empty desk explaining that.
The half dozen singing children I would assume are the We Carry Death kids. There are people in a Scottish FB group (I Love Drummore), from the Drummore Primary School who were used to film that scene and have memories of it. See the cast list here for that info. Only half of them were used, the “We Carry Death OUT of the Village” set. The “We carry LIFE into the village” kids weren’t used. So that makes at least 12 who were bussed over from Drummore to shoot that. If they aren’t that, what are they?
Old man in the library. This was how it was in the novel, Shaffer’s script and the “Cross plot” document, a production document, which Brown has a pic of in his paperback (but not ebook).
Gillie - Penny Cluer. She was to have a speaking part but that got cut. We actually see her face very briefly (accidentally, as an editing mistake actually). As Howie rides past the school, the scene dissolves to another shot where her face appears on the left. A frame or two of that next shot were left in so if you go slowly at the end as Howie rides past the schoolhouse, you’ll see her face briefly.
There 6 sword dancers in the procession. An extra one appears at the cliffs - He’s bearded, none of the others are. Stuart Hopps: Men from a military band in Edinburgh were doing a Northumbrian sword dance at the stone henge. Using real swords/broadswords is new to me…
Hard to tell but it looks like there are 6 antler dancers.
I can’t find any reference to tar men anywhere on the net. We do see a man stirring a cauldron of hot tar at the courtyard and Oak’s hobby skirt has tar splattered around the bottom edges. That’s so that when he captures women underneath it, the tar gets on the women and they are considered to be fertile/have good luck.
The only person as a Jack-In-The-Green/Green Man I see in the movie is in the carriage sitting to our right of Holly in her hare mask. The only other reference is the sign for the Green Man.
As for the musicians, there’s Magnet/Lodestone who we see playing in the pub and the brass band seen in the procession. There is also a bagpiper who is in the procession.
Two old women with 12 year-old child with hare mask?
Middle-aged man in house? Man seen in window? (Also have a woman…)
Three girls aged 10-13 in window of house - changed to 2
Mother of girls in window - I have some info on her… (Sannachan)
A dozen assorted householders with their masked children - Not used.
page C[]
Notes: lists a very old woman. Written in after that is Dead and Alive. The alive one probably ended up as the woman in the library, but does the dead one being a man, mean that the body in the funeral parlour was supposed to be of a man?
Interesting to see that the Baker was supposed to be a swordsman and the fishmonger, an antler dancer. I’ll have to look into any background on that, probably in the novel.
A young man blowing a ram’s horn? Broome ended up doing that at the cave entrance.
Four male flambeaux carriers. We only get 3 in the movie.
A crowd of 100 male and female islanders. Extras… I wonder how close they really came. I think quite a bit short.
Interesting to see that they wanted 20 different harvest festival pics. We don’t see them all but I count 13 different pics. Some are pretty hard to distinguish anything about them and some we don’t see well enough but know they are harvest festival pics. Would LOVE to see all of them as straight-forward pics. It looks like they would exist - somewhere…. (Here’s the wiki page on that: http://twm.wikia.com/wiki/Harvest_Festival_photographs)
The last four figures in photographs are the pics we see Howie look at in the darkroom. The novel goes into detail about what’s going on in each. It’s pretty much as described here but in more detail. Here’s the wili page on that: http://twm.wikia.com/wiki/The_pictures_Howie_looks_at_in_the_darkroom.
page D[]
opening credits (never shot)
Scenes[]
page E[]
(scenes progress in a descending order)
1-5,
Ullwater exterior, hear tack piano and singing
1-4,
pub, interior
hole in the elephant’s bottom is sung
page G[]
1-3 CONTD (changes to 1-3 at some unknown point)
for every drop of drink accursed makes Christ within you die…
1-2,
old whore and fisherman
1-1, church interior
Mine eyes have seen the glory (Battle Hymn of the Republic) is sung
***
Pages 1-120…[]
(scenes now progress in ascending order)
1,
postman delivers fines
2, police station
dialogue as seen in the director’s cut
3,
Hugh, come in here please
4,
McTaggart puts down his papers and comes round the desk walking towards Sergeant Howie's room.
5, I
some different dialogue but mostly the same as what we see in the director’s cut
6, I
further dialogue related to the previous scene, not in the director’s cut
7,
2 fisherman, look on the bright side, he may be gone for good
8
plane takes off
9, (Howie’s plane)
10,
11,
They wanted to use a model?
12,
Howie reacts to seeing the orchards
13,
the plane lands
14
A close up of Howie as he finishes tying up the sea plane. He looks towards the island.
15
We see the harbour from Howie's POV. A number of fishermen stand on the jetty mostly immobile.
16
Howie uses bullhorn
17
18
Howie steps ashore and talks to the fishermen.
19
Howie walking up the high street.
20
Howie looks into May Morrison's shop.
21
as we see in the Director’s Cut
22
Howie asks to see the upstairs.
23
Howie upstairs.
24
Howie in May's bedroom
25
Howie in Myrtle's bedroom
26
Howie in Myrtle's bedroom.
27
Howie confronts May about the clothes.
28
Howie rides his bike to Mrs Grimmond’s
29
Sees Cernunnos bas relief
30
talks to Mrs Grimmond and Holly. (see the missing scene shot of that)
31
Howie bicycles back, sees Boobrie bird topiary
32
puts away bicycle at May’s
33
Green Man
34
Green Man, much as we see in all versions.
The song is different. This is that version. Note that it is only choruses.
CHORUS
A land lord had one daughter
And a nice young girl too she was
Above her garters I dare not go
I being a stranger I fell in danger
For doing so, for doing so.
CHORUS
I sowed some seed, all in some grove
All in some grove, there grows no green
Now for to repeat I could not stir
I being a stranger, I fell in danger
For doing so, for doing so.
CHORUS
When nine long months was gone and past
This pretty girl had a fine son at last
Now she must keep it and call it her own
And reap the seed that I have sown
For doing so, for doing so.
35
Dining room
36
wrestling match (with “Alistair the Giant” (Oak) and and Duggald (“a small man” as listed in the cast list. Broome, seen in the pic, is listed as Onlooker in this script.)
Howie also tries to close down this pub
37
Howie leaves pub and walks outside
38
outside
39
orgy
40
back in the Green Man
41
wrestling
42
Howie goes up to his bedroom
43
Gently Johnny is sung.
44
behind the house
45
Lord Summerisle, Ash and Willow
46
Lord Summerilse strips a sapling
47
Howie goes back to bed.
48
The next morning, Willow is outside, washing tables.
49
Notes: much the same as in the Director’s Cut. No watering of graves or naked woman crying on a grave.
Howie returns and goes to bed.
Gently Johnny
Ash Buchanan is presented AFTER Gently Johnny and does more beforehand
The next day
Greets Willow outside
50
Howie asks Willow about tomorrow’s tomorrow
51
meets people on the main st
52
maypole
53
schoolhouse
54
girls in classroom
55
maypole
56
Howie outside
57
inside, Miss Rose has them stop to pay attention
58
Miss Rose and Howie talk outside
59
Howie stands before the churchyard.
60
Howie goes in the churchyard.
61
inside the churchyard.
62
Howie outside of the church
63
Howie meets the gravedigger.
64
Hand of Glory is discussed
65
Myrtle and toad
66
more
67
Howie and May talk about Myrtle being an only child and Rowan. More toad.
68
Howie first meets with chemist OUTSIDE of his shop, asking about the Dr., Some dialogue is kept for the movie but as overdub.
69
pan of window of chemist's shop.
70
Howie goes in, foreskin talk
71
Chemist’s exterior and then interior
see’s Dr Ewan
72
Dr Ewan
Mr Lennox comes out after Howie and Dr talk to say he can’t find the missing harvest pic (again)
73
Howie sees puppet doll floating down a stream. We Carry Death Out, Carry Summer In.
talks with kids
74
Public Library and Public Records office
H asks for pubic records office
75
H talks with Ingrid some more, as in the movie
76
Howie goes in library.
77
Reads up on May Day. An old MAN is in the library…
78
In front of Green Man, Howie asks Gillie for ride to castle.
79
country road, sees girls touching trees.
80
Sees Fire dance, has different words
81
arrives at castle, Gillie dialogue cut from all versions
82
Sees fire dance girls.
83
some dialogue not heard in any version
84 Laboratory
Some of this dialogue is preserved in all versions but takes place in the castle.
85
From Lab to orchard.
Experimental orchard
The lengthy apple talk
86
The two men walk up towards the front of the castle.
He brought you up to be a pagan…
More dialogue not heard in any version
87
Old Gardener and Howie walk to grave. See people watering grave.
88
they dig up Rowan
89
back at the castle
virtually the same as what we see in all versions
90
breaks into chemist’s
91
a light comes on from someone inside
92
Howie in the darkroom
93
Green Man
H talks to Willow about tomorrow’s tomorrow
94
Howie lies awake
95
Willow dances but does not call out to him beforehand
A much shorter simpler version of the dance described.
96
Howie feels up the wall.
97
Willow wakes him up bringing tea.
Virtually the same dialogue heard in the versions that have this scene.
98
H talks with Miss Rose about May Day on the High St.
99
Howie walks to the quay.
100
Howie gets rowed to plane. See villagers in masks.
101
Howie gets into plane.
102
Can't start the plane.
103
Howie calls for the harbor master.
104
Harbor master turns around.
105
Harbor master comes to seaplane.
106
Howie goes ashore.
107
Howie sees hobby horse.
108
Follows hobby,
109
Courtyard of the Green Man.
110
Howie back at May's.
111
House search.
112
House search.
113
House search. Asks kids to take masks off.
114
Montage of house search
115
Hairdresser shop - all dialogue cut in all versions
116
Baker - most dialogue cut here but there wasn’t much to start with
117
Fishmonger - same here
118
Butcher - All dialogue cut
119 Refrigerated apple store
Howie’s thought voice - all cut
120
Sees undertaker's shop.
121
outside undertaker's
122
looks inside undertaker's, see's body in coffin.
123
Howie goes in.
124 inside
No mention of a missing/bandaged hand.
125
Howie back at Green Man
126
Howie resting in bed.
127
Hand of Glory put in
128
Howie throws up.
129
Howie goes to Alder's room.
130 INT:
Howie knocks out Alder and puts on the costume.
131
The procession starts at the Green.
132
The procession
133
The procession.
134
The procession.
135
The procession.
136 A gorge leading to a beach
Procession.
137
chop chop scene (on the beach)
138
Beach
139
Cave
140
Rowan and Howie in cave.
141
Rowan and Howie in cave.
142
They come out of hole, see everyone.
143 -146
Dialogue.
Howie inside man
147
Up to last shot.
most of thIs follows all versions with some additional dialogue and actions.
****
Notes:[]
5/10/17
Note that Summer Isle and Summerisle are used interchangeably.
Maid and Willow are separate characters.
Onlooker is who talks to Howie during the wrestling match in the Green Man. In the pic, it’s Broome.
Clock in the script at the time of the wrestling match is 11:15.
As LS presents Ash…
"In the right hand window stands Willow MacGregor, leaning languidly outwards to let her opulent breasts rest on the window sill." If only we saw that in the movie…
4/17/17
The song they sing when Willow is introduced is this. Can’t find anything about it on the net.
A land lord had one daughter
And a nice young girl too she was
Above her garters I dare not go
I being a stranger I fell in danger
For doing so, for doing so.
CHORUS
I sowed some seed, all in some grove
All in some grove, there grows no green
Now for to repeat I could not stir
I being a stranger, I fell in danger
For doing so, for doing so.
CHORUS
When nine long months was gone and past
This pretty girl had a fine son at last
Now she must keep it and call it her own
And reap the seed that I have sown
For doing so, for doing so.
The harvest festival photos “span at least two decades.” All are 13 years old.
LS has large twig in left hand when addressing Willow with Ash in the first shot. Next shot, his left hand is on Ash’s shoulder. He must have suddenly dropped the sapling… (Continuity)
During Ash LS presentation scene, Willow is “leaning languidly outwards to let her opulent breasts rest on the window sill.” and Ash chops the branches off the sapling and plants it.
A huge wreath of laurel is attached to the maypole (which is a spruce with its recently cut branches nearby)
The first gravestone has the following inscription under the name and dates of life and death which are mostly concealed by ivy, "Deliver me from the wildly roaming, supernatural woman who took my head, mine ear and my life's career from me.
Other more recent graves are planted in pairs with a wooden hoop joining them. Roses and other climbers ave been planted in each grave and grow together and intertwine on the hoop. (See only one like this.)
A young woman sits astride the sanctuary step, her legs open, and a baby at her breast.
Lennox is an artiste…
“Though mind you, I do think the one about ten years ago that's slightly fogged, is just about the most literal realisation of "the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" that could be contrived. Don't you?”
The children carrying death out of the village, and summer in, are “bearing aloft a new tree cutting to which is fastened another puppet clothed in white.”
Also it describes the puppet floating down the river before this.
They have dialogue which was cut.
Benjamin Morrison died aged ninety-eight. Rachel Morrison died aged ninety-six.
The book Howie reads in the library is an encyclopedia, the H book, chapter is on Harvest Festivals.
The text he reads is this:
In societies as disparate as ancient Egypt and pre-Colombian Incan, the Harvest Festival was strangely enough celebrated in much the same way. A young virgin was chosen to personify the Goddess of Fertility. She was made much of by the whole community and was dressed in the clothes and adornments sacred to the deity.The whole community attended the feast in the temple where the fruit and vegetables and grain were piled high. On a platform, above the heaped produce, the child stood, worshipped by the multitude. At a predetermined point in the ceremony, the priests would seize her, fling her down, and cut her throat, allowing the blood to saturate the produce and mark the walls of the temple. The chief priest then skinned the child , and wearing the still warm skin like a mantle, led the rejoicing crowd through the streets. The priest thus represented the Goddess reborn and guaranteed another successful harvest next year…
In Europe on the other hand , the young virgin was usually burnt, together with the abundant produce in a huge sacrificial bonfire…
Miss Rose was naked at the fire dance.
The song sung at the Fire Dance:
Give way, and be ye ravisht by the Sun,
And hang the head when as the Act is done
Spread as He spreads; wax less as He does wane;
And as He shuts, close up to Maids again.
This is TO MARIGOLDS by Robert Herrick.
The stone flagged floor has the pelts of deer and seals strewn on it. The high vaulted stone walls bear arrangements of ancient weapons and shields, mainly from the Norse era. No.
LS is described as : “He is dressed in the kilt and a loose woolen white shirt. On his feet are a pair of sandals and round his neck he wears a thick intricately woven gold chain in the style of the pre-Christian Scandinavians.” He wears a suit…
LS’s grandfather bought the island in 1868.
The Summerisle Famous Apple is described erotically:
“He caresses the apple lovingly.
LORD SUMMERISLE
Creamy white flesh, firm, full flushed, blood red bloomed skin with a truly noble sweet vinous flavour.”
The children are described as ecstatic when jumping through the fire.
The grave waterers are seen when Howie goes to dig up Rowan’s grave. (scene 87)
They sing The Ram of Derby (It is a very very old version of the song dating from when the RAM was a MAN)???
The pics in the darkroom:
The first is labelled The Blade-Bone of the Black Pig (Slinneineachd) and contains a photograph of a crowd of islanders standing in a circle round Lord Summerisle who is minutely scrutinising the bone of an animal.
The second is labelled Omen Stones (Coel Coeth) and contains a photograph of half a dozen people throwing white round stones into the embers of a fire.
The third is labelled The Seer in the Bull (Taghairm) and contains the photograph of a man wrapped in the hide of a bull being rocked by others on the bank of a river.
The fourth is labelled The Elucidator (Peithyrnen) and contains a photograph which shows Lord Surnmerisle manipulating a machine consisting of several staves on which judicial maxims have been cut. (When turned the staves spell out messages of three or four lines.)
The fifth is labelled The Living and The Dead Graves and contains a photograph which shows a woman wrapped in a blanket lying on the ground between two holes. One has a sign by it reading Living Grave; the other reads Dead Grave. A smaller circle of people looks on with concern.
The girl standing amongst the fruit and vegetables is not Rowan Morrison but Daisy!
Willow’s song:
I saw a maid milk a bull
Well done Liar.
I saw a maid milk a bull
Give him his due.
I saw a maid milk a bull
Every stroke a bucket full
Isn't that a comical thing to be true.
Miss Rose explains about May Day
It is a feast of fecundity, sergeant, celebrated in the form of an ancient dance drama which has, as you may well expect, a complete cast cf characters. Firstly there is the hobby horse or man-animal who leads the ceremony chasing the girls with tarred skirts. Secondly there is a man-woman figure, what we call the Betsy or Teaser always played by the community leader, in this case Lord Summerisle. Thidly there are the Sword Dancers who throughout the dance continuously make a Lock of their Swords -- a clear symbol of the sun. And fourthly there is the victim whose death and resurrection of course is the climax of the dance.
Villagers as Howie gets rowed out: All wear elaborate animal masks - otters, badgers, foxes, eagles, stoats, rats, etc. Later described as “In each case the masks are of animals indigenous to the Highlands.”
The hobby disappears finally into the back courtyard of The Green Man!
Mr Lennox was watching the hobby chase scene from his shop, which Howie was right next to.
LS at Green Man courtyard: He himself is dressed in the Teaser's costume -- a long straight dark wig and a dark purple, very simple, Edwardian Governess' s dress, faintly reminiscent of a priest's habit…
In the courtyard, an “Ale Bower which has been set up in a corner of the yard. The Bower itself is decorated with fruit blossoms and sprigs of flowering garlic and white handkerchiefs. Inside men dressed as "Green Men" or "Jack-in-the-Green" serve the thirsty men with ale.” That’s a nice touch I’d like to see.
Dialogue was ADDED to the scene with Howie and May Morrison after the courtyard.
One of the girls in the window responds to Howie when asked to take her mask off:
GIRL IN WINDOW
Cheek!
Fishmonger speech:
It's the Salmon of Knowledge. It is said that it acquired mystical lore, through eating the nuts of the divine hazel trees which fell into a well beneath them. These nuts conveyed to the Salmon know ledge of everything that was in the world ; and by extension those who can catch and eat of its flesh acquire supernatural sight.
When Howie hits Alder it is 7 minutes to 3.
3 flambeaux carriers seen in the movie, this says 4
Howie stands before them naked after being cut out of the Punch outfit. It happens in the movie but isn’t focused on.
Howie is wearing a tie underneath the Punch outfit!
The words “Nuada” and “Avellenau” are omitted in the dialogue as Howie is sacrificed. Maybe it didn’t come across. (Shony also deleted when the ale is offered.)
It is exactly the same as the Shaffer screenplay after the cast list and scenes 1-5 through 1-1 in the Pitt script, up to page 115 after the Howie line “You dressed me as a Fool?” On page 117 of the Shaffer script it picks up at the Four flambeaux carriers… which is on page 116 of the Pitt script. The text is slightly different on each script after that and picks up at “Nuada, might god of the Sun.” on the same pages of each script.
It continues to be the same until page 119 of the Shaffer script and 118 of the Pitt script where they diverge again. They seem to be the same again at the “O God, whose nature… “part and then they both slightly differ until the end.
4/16/17
The fishmonger was stirring the barrel of hot tar…
Looking through Ian’s Ingrid Pitt script, as Howie develops the photographs, we see a picture of Daisy! as the Harvest Festival Queen! So the pic of Daisy we have would have been the original intended photograph. Why was it changed? I read on…
As Howie comes in to the Green Man after searching the houses…
“We notice a tit bird mask lying on the bar. Willow looks at the clock.”
“the camera zooms in to show what he is seeing -- the figure of Rowan Morrison, her hair dressed in spring flowers, her frock the same as the one she was wearing in the photograph which accompanied the original anonymous letter.” - We don’t get that in the movie. She is dressed in normal attire.
"round her waist is a white rope which binds her to a central giant stalagmite, which rises from the cave floor." - or this.
Howie and LS dialogue on the cliffs is quite divergent from movie. (Book?) (Action before in cave too.)
Dialogue on cliffs is moved to when Howie is inside the man.