Who are Myrtle and Beryl?
In one memorable scene, the Bandits encounter an invisible barrier, which shatters when a skull is thrown at it. The dark fortress is revealed behind it. This scene was not in the shooting script. Says Gilliam, “That was another desperate moment, mainly because that sequence was an afterthought. Mike Palin and I had originally written another whole sequence about two spider women who ensnare some of the bandits in their web. We actually filmed this – and it was marvellous. But it now required a scene on either side to get us from the giant to the fortress, and we had run out of money. So we needed a very cheap way of getting from point A to Point B. An invisible barrier is pretty cheap, so we shot that.” The spiderwomen were Myrtle and Beryl (to be found in some Time Bandits credits). From the shooting script, the following was to be the method of getting the gang from the spider cave to the fortress: 110 EXT. CAVE DAY The gang rush out of the cave dragging KEVIN. They scramble out of
