IN THIS EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT FROM TASCHEN’S NEW BOOK ON STANLEY KUBRICK’S THE SHINING , CAST AND CREW REMEMBER THE 1978 FILMING OF JACK NICHOLSON’S ICONIC DOOR OBLITERATION

WORDS J.W. RINZLER AND LEE UNKRICH

ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, production was unable to work because Danny Lloyd [playing Danny Torrance] was sick again. Thursday was a wash, too, because Nicholson had a “cold sore on lip”. [Location researcher and photographer] Murray Close was dispatched to Nicholson’s residence with a macro lens to photograph the cold sore for insurance purposes. They were finally able to roll film on Friday, and completed part of the scene in which Wendy is asleep and Danny emerges from his room as Tony to write “REDRUM” on the bathroom door. “The ‘REDRUM’ text was something I had Danny practise over and over in the dressing room,” [Kubrick’s assistant Leon] Vitali says. “When Danny came to do the scene, he did it perfectly, first time, with the lipstick on the door.”

Les Tomkins [art director] was on set with tracing paper to preserve what Danny had written. “We were then free to carry on working,” [set painter Ron] Punter says, “knowing that if anything went terribly wrong, we could always reproduce what Danny had actually done for real and not lose any continuity. Further, we could reproduce it on the replica doors needed when Jack was smashing them in with an axe as the scene progressed. Very neat. Stanley was thinking miles down the road in every way imaginable, and constantly, too.”

On Monday, production continued, with Danny in a rocking chair. “He stops rocking and rises... Pan left with him to bed where Wendy is asleep. He picks up knife and feels edge...” When Danny was supposed to say “REDRUM” to wake his sleeping mother, Kubrick asked him to say it over and over.

The next day Nicholson was back on camera to axe his way through the apartment’s front door. Nearly all of this sequence’s dialogue was absent from shooting scripts. Kubrick may have felt comfortable with Nicholson adlibbing, or with any lines they might invent on the day. Before rolling, Kubrick and Nicholson discussed how to swing his axe. Kubrick decided that over the shoulder was better, instead of swinging it waist-high. Nicholson stood in the corridor; Kubrick, [camera operator Kelvin] Pike, and [focus assistant Douglas] Milsome placed themselves on the other side of the door a safe distance away. When asked if he was ready, Nicholson replied, “The axe is up!”