The Snake Pit
Tags: insanity, flashback

Plot synopsis:
Virginia Cunningham (Olivia de Havilland) is an apparently schizophrenic inmate at a mental institution called the Juniper Hill State Hospital (which treats only female patients). She hears voices and seems so out of touch with reality that she doesn’t recognize her husband Robert (Mark Stevens).
Dr. Kik (Leo Genn; as Mark Van Kensdelaerik, MD/"Dr. Kik") works with her, and flashbacks show how Virginia and Robert met a few years earlier in Chicago. He worked for a publisher who rejected her writing, and they bumped into each other again in the cafeteria. Occasionally she continued to drop by the cafeteria so they get to know each other.
Despite their blossoming romance, Virginia abruptly leaves town without explanation. Robert moves to New York and bumps into her again at the Philharmonic. After she provides a loose excuse for her absence and departure, they pick up where they left off, though she remains evasive and avoids his desire for marriage. Eventually, Virginia brings up the possibility of marriage. They marry on May 7, but Virginia acts erratically again. She can’t sleep and loses touch with reality, as she feels it is November and snaps when Robert corrects her. The rest of the film follows her therapy. Dr. Kik puts her through electro-shock treatment and other forms of treatment including hypnotherapy. Dr. Kik wants to get to the "causes of her unconscious rejection." The film includes many flashbacks, including her earlier failed engagement to Gordon (Leif Erickson) as well as childhood issues. The film shows her progress and what happens to her along the way.
The mental hospital is organized on a spectrum of "levels." The better a patient gets, the lower level she is able to achieve. Virginia moves to the lowest level (One), where she encounters Nurse Davis (Helen Craig), the only truly abusive nurse in the hospital. Davis is jealous of Dr. Kik's interest in Virginia, which she sees as excessive. Nurse Davis goads Virginia into an outburst which results in Virginia being straitjacketed and expelled from Level One into the "snake pit," where patients considered beyond help are simply placed together in a large padded cell and abandoned. Dr. Kik, learning of this, has Virginia returned to Level One, but away from Nurse Davis's care.
Despite this setback, Dr. Kik's care continues to improve Virginia's mental state. Over time, Virginia gains insight and self-understanding, and is able to leave the hospital.
The film also depicts the bureaucratic regimentation of the institution, the staff — some unkind and aloof, some kind and empathetic; and relationships between patients, from which Virginia learns as much as she does in therapy.

Review: "The Snake Pit" is based on a true story written by Mary Jane Ward in the hopes it would bring to the attention of the people, the horrors that a person faced in a mental institution at the time, pre-1948.
Olivia deHavilland acted the character of Virginia brilliantly as did everyone else in the film and Betsy Blair in her portrayal of Hester looked like she was completely and totally beyond help.
It must have taken a lot of courage to get this project started since it dealt with a serious problem of mental illness, something not mentioned in good company, let alone in a film that took the viewer into the despair the protagonist is experiencing.Anatole Litvak, the director, got a tremendous performance from its star Olivia de Havilland.
In smaller roles we see Lee Patrick, Natalie Schafer, Leif Erickson and Celeste Holm, and Betsy Blair."The Snake Pit" is a document about mental illness treated with frankness by Anatole Litvak and his team..
Seeing her in the Snake Pit and the accolades she got must have been of great satisfaction to Olivia DeHavilland because of the fights she had to get roles other than a crinoline heroine.In 1948 seeing stuff like electroshock was a real dose of reality to the movie going public.
THE SNAKE PIT (1948) tells the story of a young woman suffering from a nervous breakdown, her confinement in a mental institution of the day, and her struggle for recovery through the efforts of a caring doctor (Leo Genn) and loving husband (Mark Stevens).
Groundbreaking 1948 production on mental illness and its treatment in state institutions, "The Snake Pit" maintains interest today.Thanks to the lively direction of Anatole Litvak, good scripting, and the enormous talent of Olivia deHavilland as Virginia, this film makes an impressive statement.Mark Stevens is always a dependable leading man, and Leo Genn a welcome addition to any dramatic scenario.
Anatole Litvak 's interest in madness didn't begin with "the snake pit" In one of his thirties French movies,"Coeur de Lilas" ,one sequence depicted a person gone crazy and it was already impressive.Some will say times have changed and the hospital which Litvak depicts is a thing of the past.Sure it is.But what could he have done?Just have a look at the scenes in an insane asylum in Mankiewicz ' s "Suddenly last Summer"(1959) or those in Georges Franju's "La Tete Contre les Murs"(1960)?A decade later ,mentally ill people were still regarded as monsters.That scene in "Suddenly..." where Elizabeth Taylor accidentally ends up with the raving mad women and which is not in the original Tennessee Williams' play was certainly influenced by "the snake pit" .Some will say the Freudian methods are childish and simplistic .They are for sure.But have a look at Gregory Peck's treatment in "Spellbound" (1945) or De Havilland's in "Dark Mirror" (1946).And I love all those movies I mention.60 years on.Think of it.People will not argue when they watch a school or a prison of long ago.That's why I do not understand the "It has not worn well" which too many critics (mostly European) use when they talk about Litvak's 1948 film.One thing which has worn well is De Havilland's performance.After being Erroll Flynn's fiancée in (excellent) movies by Walsh or Curtiz ,she tackled much more ambitious parts after the war.She was never afraid to make herself uglyor old ("the heiress" "hold back the dawn"),she and her peer Bette Davis were actresses ahead of their time ,not just pretty faces as too many contemporary actresses are today.It's no wonder if Davis named Meryl Streep "her successor" .In "snake pit" De Havilland's acting should be studied by future actresses .She can express everything ,and the moments when she becomes a human wreck down in a "snake pit" (the snakes might be all those arms and hands)are the most impressive..
Music is by Alfred Newman and cinematography by Leo Tover.Olivia de Havilland plays Virginia Stuart Cunningham, and film chronicles Virgina's time and treatment in the Juniper Hill Mental Institution."It was strange, here I was among all those people, and at the same time I felt as if I were looking at them from some place far away, the whole place seemed to me like a deep hole and the people down in it like strange animals, like...
As Virginia weaves her way through this maze of psychological discord, with flashbacks constantly adding layers to the character's make up, Litvak presents a fascinating portrait of asylum life and the people who resided there, both as patients and staff.Some scenes are brilliantly crafted, either as visual expansions of the story or as shards of light in a dark world.
With de Havilland doing her tour de force, it could be easy to forget the great work of Genn and Stevens, the former is a bastion of assured calmness as Dr. Mark Kik, the latter as Virgina's husband Robert underplays it to perfection and he gives us a character to root for wholesale.It has to be viewed in the context of the era it was made, but its influence on future movies and awareness of mental health treatments in the real world should not be understated.
Yes I,m comparing the Snake Pit to One Flew Over The Cuckokos Nest again, but look at the similarities 26 years apart.The average person spends very little time thinking about patients in mental hospitals, so a film like this, makes for fascinating viewing.
Despite it's rather misleading title "the Snake Pit" offers a rare look into the world of mental illness and it's treatment modalities.Of course the state hospital system is nearly obsolite in America today.But in 1948 it was a stark reality!This film offers a view from all angles:the confused and frightened patient,her concerned and loving husband,the dedicated and determined doctor,and the hospital system itself.With it's overcrowding population,the bars and locks,the straight-jackets and shock treatments,and even the moments of humor and humanity!This movie takes you on a journey in only 2 hours which seems like a mini-series.
The central character is the young and terrified Virginia Cunningham Stuart.For reasons that are never fully revealed she has a "nervous breakdown" and becomes a patient at the local state hospital.She suffers from memory lapses,mood swings,suspicious delusions,and is very frightened!The wards in which she lives are often filled with old and chronically mentally ill women.Her concerned psychiatrist Dr."Kik" believes that Virginia can be reached and helped to face her troubles.This is accomplished via shock treatments and deep psychotherapy ( remember this was before psychotropic meds!) But the world of the state hospital and her husband's attempt to rescue her prove to be larger obstacles!But Virginia does manage to overcome those obstacles and eventually become "well" enough to return "home" ( remember this was long before half-way houses and day-treatment centers!) From the harrowing and unforgettable portrayals to the expert cinematography "the Snake Pit" remains a true gem for moviegoers of any era!!.
The Snake Pit will always be remembered for Olivia de Havilland's outstanding performance as the confused Virginia Cunningham of Mary Jane Ward's best-selling novel.
What happens in the middle(all contained in the hospital) is a memorable performance given by Olvia DeHavilland, the treatment she gets, the other patients, the nurses,the darkness of the hospital all add up to, I think one of the best movies made..
Her acting in the 1940s made de Havilland one of the decade's finest dramatic actresses.******** The Snake Pit (11/4/48) Anatole Litvak ~ Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Helen Craig.
While many films have taken place in mental hospital, I think very few really address how normal most mentally ill people are most of the time, or the fine balance between sane and insane.I do not know much about Olivia de Havilland, but she really pulled all the stops here.
Olivia DeHavilland gives another standout performance in "The Snake Pit," also starring Leo Genn, Mark Stevens, and Celeste Holm.
Zanuck, always at the forefront of social issues, produced this film, directed by Anatole Litvak.DeHavilland plays a troubled, often disoriented woman with unexplained mood swings who winds up in a state mental hospital with no memory of her new husband (Mark Stevens).
The song "Going Home" sung by one of the patients at a dance is one of the best moments, as are the harrowing scenes of the electroshock therapy and the bath with the covering over it that DeHavilland is put into - the feeling of being trapped and having no control is pervasive throughout the film.
I always worried about her, because although the institution portrayed in Snake Pit was a state hospital, seeing that movie was my first impression of mental health treatment.
It's not an easy film to sit through.Mark Stevens plays de Havilland's patient (meaning long-suffering) husband and Leo Genn is pleasant as the caring doctor.
But I have enough experience with medical institutions and institutions in general to believe that "The Snake Pit," Anatole Litvak's harrowing film about one woman's journey through the hell of mental illness, gives a fairly accurate account.
What's most frightening about "The Snake Pit" is how little we've advanced in the perception and treatment of mental illness in the years since the movie was made.Celeste Holm, fresh off an Oscar for "Gentleman's Agreement," has a teeny-tiny role as a fellow inmate, while Betsy Blair, also in a small role, nevertheless makes a tremendous impact in a few scenes late into the movie."The Snake Pit" garnered six Academy Award nominations in 1948, including Best Motion Picture (20th Century-Fox), Best Director (Anatole Litvak), Best Actress (Olivia de Havilland), Best Screenplay (Frank Partos and Millen Brand) and Best Dramatic/Comedy Score (Alfred Newman), but won only a single award, that for Best Sound Recording, no doubt recognizing the film's cacophony of interior and exterior ravings.
And dealing with it in a marvelous way.'The Snake Pit' tells the story of Virginia Stuart Cunningham, a common American woman that suddenly finds herself in a state insane asylum, but she can't remember how she got there.
This picture also features one of the best performances by Olivia de Havilland in her excellent career, a great screenplay and a powerful directing, but the fact that it didn't won any of the major Oscars in 1949 made this movie not so well-known today.
Dr Kik (Leo Genn) takes on her case and tries to help her recover with the help of her husband Robert (Mark Stevens).This film is made watchable by the performance of de Havilland and Genn but my favourite character is Helen Craig as 'Nurse Davis'.
Virginia is nuts.Olivia de Havilland does well and Leo Genn should have been cast above Mark Stevens, but overall, while the film has an interesting subject matter, it could have been better..
Well-intentioned film, merit in the way it shows us what psychiatric institutions were like at the time and the fantastic performance of Olivia De Havilland, in the role of Virginia.
De Havilland gives a standout performance as the main character, Virginia Cunningham, who has suffered a psychotic breakdown and placed in an insane asylum for treatment after her husband, Robert (Mark Stevens).
At the time I first saw the movie in the 1960's, I had a friend who was in a mental ward briefly and the scenes were frightening realistic with the characters portrayal and the prevalence of shock therapy While it is true the ending was over the top with the "Going Home' sequence, the message of hope was uplifting and was counter to the stark hard to watch struggles of daily life in the hospital.
It keeps the story going at all times, the one way or the other.Perhaps Olivia de Havilland is better than ever in her role in this movie.
Touted as the first film explicitly recounting a patient's baptism of fire in a mental institution, THE SNAKE PIT, directed by Anatole Litvak and starring a doughty Olivia de Havilland (102-year-old-young as of today) as our protagonist Virginia Cunningham, still pluckily holds court after seven decades have elapsed.
The script conscientiously shirks any shocking-value manipulation, and patiently unfolds Virginia's tale-of-woe with a limpid sense of scientific correctness (electro-shock therapy, hypnotherapy, hydrotherapy and straitjacket, the whole package is here) and a winning consideration toward our heroine, whose taxing waxing-and-waning battle (the lowest point is to being thrown into the titular snake pit, a place for those who are beyond help, with an added figurative signification of the extreme means subjected to them, to treat insanity with insane action) against schizophrenia earns the auspicious ending over the long haul fair and square.The story's positive overlook on Virginia's recuperation doesn't necessarily overshadow Litvak's unsparing depiction of an overpopulated institution, regulated by its own echelons and bureaucracy, yet, in presenting the often vilified hospital staff, he maintains a perspicacious mind, there are good apples and bad apples, but mostly they are just trying to do their overloaded job and occasionally are afflicted by career fatigue, even the most callous one, nurse Davis (quite a scene-stealer Helen Craig), turns out to be driven more by her self-seeking consciousness than sadistic vileness.
Time and again, the film proves that each head case is an entrancing thespian per se (great cameos from Celeste Holm, Beulah Bondi, Lee Patrick, Betsy Blair and then some), but a striking vibe of sororal unity points up Litvak and co.'s humane disposition that overpowers any attempt of caricature or exploitation.A de-glamorized de Havilland pours herself all on her character, brilliantly alternates between Virginia's manifold frames-of-mind, running the gamut from intense distress to heart-felt compassion, and makes the movie a compulsive viewing even just for the sake of her performance alone, whereas in those quieter moments, she can also make her marks in imparting Virginia's transient displacement with nuances and bonafides, a sterling showcase for her acting chops, and a compelling case study that doesn't relinquish its rapier-like perception for the sake of dramatization, more importantly and edifyingly, THE SNAKE PIT alerts us that it is not that rare for a person to go off the trolley, damage might have be done from the very start..
She got fantastic support from Mark Stevens, her husband in the film as well as Leo Genn, phenomenal as the doctor who understood her.Ruth Donnelly, Beulah Bondi and particularly Betsy Blair were terrific as mentally ill women.
Amazing that Celeste Holm, who had won the supporting Oscar the year before for "Gentleman's Agreement," had such a small role in this film.The picture brings out how terrible mental illness can be and the desperation of those trying to get better.As we saw with "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," there are plenty of nurses who should not have been in psychiatric wards.It takes compassion and understanding to unlock the mystery to mental illnesses.
Olivia de Haviland put on a really quite brilliant performance as Virginia, a woman institutionalized after suffering a nervous breakdown, who tries to get at the root of her problem through psychotherapy with Dr. Kik, played by Leo Genn, who also put on a completely believable performance in the role.
Along with "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," this is the best film about mental illness, excellently directed by Litvak.
Olivia de Havilland gives the performance of a lifetime as the innocuous Virginia Cunningham, a patient at a women's mental institute.
But through the marvels of shock therapy, which in the movie is very dramatic due to the striking orchestra music, she starts to recover.Dr. Kick, played by Leo Genn, spends a lot of time at the hospital, in one scene all the women are in a ward sleeping and he comes by to see how Virginia is doing.
What makes "The Snake Pit" work as well as it does is the truly extraordinary work of Olivia de Havilland as Virginia, and Leo Genn as the benevolent, determined Dr. Kik.
She acts as a sort of mirror as to how de Havilland will eventually be in her treatment of the Betsy Blair character.Litvak makes great use of the soundtrack in this film (the voice-over from de Havilland works especially well), and the shadows and camera pull-backs from the terrifying "snake pit" are very memorable, and acutely show Virginia's terror.
Really, that's just the jumping off point for this film.As many other users have already mentioned, Olivia de Havilland is brilliant in the role of Virginia Stuart Cunningham, a woman grappling to come to terms with her situation in the proverbial "snake pit" of the state hospital system in 1940s America.
The Snake Pit. This was a film I found listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the title suggested nothing particular in a story or plot to me, but the leading actress was a good draw for me to watch as well, from Oscar nominated director Anatole Litvak (Anastasia).
Basically Virginia Stuart Cunningham (Oscar nominated Olivia de Havilland) was an outwardly ordinary young woman, but all of the sudden she has found herself in Juniper Hill State Hospital, a mental institution, and she has no memory of how she got there.
de Havilland is brilliant at being emotionally and mentally unstable, but also sympathetic and traumatised, this was really harrowing and extremely controversial film for its time, and it still remains so, seeing both the story of a woman having a nervous breakdown and the ways and methods of the hospital to cure her and other inmates, with highly emotional and traumatic scenes, and touching moments too, especially the inmates singing "Going Home", this film will definitely make an impact, a fantastic psychological drama.
***SPOILERS*** The film "The Snake Pit" is based on the true life story, and book, of Mary Jane Ward who herself was a patient in an upstate New York State mental hospital for some 8 1/2 months which is why it's so accurate in depicting the events that happened there to her.Virginia Stuart, Olivia deHavilland, is a young writer who's looking to author her first novel when she meets young and handsome Robert Cunningham, Mark Stevens, who works for a publishing house in New York City.