Customer Reviews

The Snake Pit

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Once powerful shocker is dated now but still retains the unpleasantness and emotional tugs that must have riveted audiences in 1948. Olivia de Havilland gives an Oscar nominated performance as Virginia, a woman confined to a state mental hospital after a mental breakdown. As she struggles to understand what happened to her and regain her sanity through the kindliness and patience of a very understanding doctor, we are treated to the horrors and inhumanity of a state hospital circa 1948. Hissably horrible nurses, shock treatments, poor food, overcrowding, ice baths and finally "the snake pit"---you name it and Virginia goes through it. Luckily, she has a very loving husband who waits for her to "come home". de Havilland is excellent and if the film (and performances) seems dated, this was 1948 and mental illness was a new frontier being brought out into the open and frankly explored by Hollywood. It's possible to imagine a state hospital being this horrific in the late 40's. Supporting cast is fine but Celeste Holm is wasted in a small part as a fellow patient and disappears altogether. The finale, set at a dance for the patients, features the old tearjerker "Goin' Home" (which, incidentally, is about dying) done to effectively emotional heights about finally being released and "going home". This film is a classic of it's kind and is given a beautiful DVD treatment and I very much recommend it for movie buffs and fans of de Havilland. I still find parts of it intense and disturbing, so if it still has that effect after all these years I can only imagine what it must have been like in 1948.

The Snake Pit was released at a time (late Forties) when Hollywood was taking a more serious look at important issues. This film deals with mental illness and mental institutions, and does so in a direct and honest way. Olivia de Havilland stars as a wife / aspiring writer whose husband, Mark Stevens, has to commit her to an institution when her irrational behaviour becomes too much to deal with. In the institution, she fights to regain her mental health with the assistance of a kind doctor, Leo Genn. But it's not easy, and the film shows the setbacks she faces, not to mention the horrors of life in an asylum. She is subjected to electroshock treatments, cruel nurses, and patients even more disturbed than she is, all in conditions that could hardly foster improved mental health. It truly resembles a snake pit, particularly in one memorable shot taken above the bizarre goings-on below. Although the honest presentation of the subject matter is important, the real strength in the movie lies in de Havilland's performance. She's incredible in a role that showcases her dramatic ability to it's full extent. She manages not to go over the top, which would have been easy to do given the subject matter, and she makes the character believable and sympathetic. The film and de Havilland's performance should be seen.

Olivia deHavilland shows her acting chops in "The Snake Pit," a harrowing look at mental illness, circa 1948. Believe me, if you have to go insane, just be thankful we're in the New Millennium, and not in post-War America! "The Snake Pit" is wonderfully acted by all concerned, but it is deHavilland's showcase, and she does a superb job. In fact, I was quite impressed with her range and dramatic ability...this is no "Melanie" from "Gone With the Wind!" Alas, "The Snake Pit" is extremely dated, but I recommend it for deHavilland's startling performance. Really, it's extremely unusual to see such power in an actress from the "old" school of demure acting. Livvy was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award and certainly deserved to win, in my humble opinion. She's much better in this than in "The Heiress" (though I love that film, too, for different reasons). Check this out--you won't be disappointed!

I had heard about "The Snake Pit" over the years but never saw it until the other night. I wasn't sure if I'd see a movie with an expose of mental institutions or a considered opinion of the subject. I believe that I got both. All in all, this is a very good movie about a woman with a mental illness and her slow road to recovery. In the process, we see the story of the woman as a child, as a young woman, as an inmate in a mental istitution, etc. The young woman is play with excellence by Olivia de Havilland in an Oscar-nominated role. She had a worthy counterpart in the acting of Leo Glenn as her psychiatrist. There are several other good preformances by other women inmates. There is a husband, played by Mark Stevens, whose patience challenges our belief.

The excellence of de Havilland's preformance lies in her ability to show a woman disturbed rather than insane. There are times when she loses it but she generally plays the role as near normal to close to the edge.

The movie, made in the late 1940's, shows us a variety of levels of care as well as treatment. We get the electroshock treatment as well as analysis. Experts in the field may either scoff or appreciate the portrait of the state of psycho-analysism of the time. Frankly, I found the doctors explanations to his patient to be above the norm for Hollywood. The ending is appropriately understated. I won't elaborate but I think you'll agree that there was no need for a typical Hollywood finale. This is one of the better movies of the late 1940's and it's still worth seeing.

"The Snake Pit" is a film with a message, despite the more dated aspects to it. In fact, the astute observer will note that mental health care really has not come all that far since the making of this film. The shock therapy that Havilland's character is subjected to, the "ice baths", and the biased treatment she is given by staff, one nurse in particular, all go on now, only in a more subtle, whitewashed fashion.

Virginia (Havilland) is a woman suffering from profound memory loss, confusion, depression and a slight problem pinning down who she really is. The filmmakers must at some point have decided not to go "hardcore" with their portrayal of Virginia's state, as her symptoms (in the opening scene, for example, she is absolutely concvinced she is in prison when she has already been in the hospital for a number of months) bespeak of something far more serious than the "lost father" complex which supposedly lies at the core of her acting out and bizarre behaviors. The ending is a bit sugar coated, although this is most likely what everyone was hoping for.

The masterful thing about this film is that we get to know Virginia so well--the sequences with her husband Robert, her kinship with fellow patients, the repertoire she has going with the British doctor who seems to be the only one who remotely understands her--and yet she remains enigmatic and mysterious the entire time. The plot is crafted in such a way that we are dangled from the director's parapet about precisely who Virginia really is until she undergoes real therapy. The censors in 1948 must have been pretty stringent, since we never get to see Havilland's character "act out", and hoky hallucinations seem to jump in every time she attacks someone, not allowing us to see.

The best parts in the movie take place with her husband, who she refuses to get very intimate with. The way he sticks by her despite her insane behavior and inability to "love anybody" is both moving and believable. I wouldn't call this a disturbing film, really. Virginia's plight is tame compared to what we have seen other directors do with the theme of the mentally ill since. But I'm sure it was more than disturbing for 1948. A seemingly forgotten film which deserves more attention.

One of the first films to seriously tackle the subject of mental illness, this Oscar-winner remains to have its power to hold the viewer and not let go until the final scene fades out. Even after 50 years from its original release, this landmark film presents a disturbing look into the walls of a mental institution through the eyes of a young, struggling writer, who has a breakdown in her health and fears her surroundings, her life, and even her husband. How she copes with her pain is the highlight of the picture, with several scenes that will make you cringe with what happens in mental hospitals. The noise of the insane and the wailings of being lost in the dark fathoms of the foggy mind won an Oscar for this film for its sound, and was nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actress (Olivia de Havilland),Screenplay Adaptation from the novel by Mary Jane Ward, and Best Music Score, composed by Alfred Newman, whose wailing of the violins and shrieking horns and screaming trumpets echo the striking pain of those who have lost their minds. This is a true film classic.

Anatole Litvak's "The Snake Pit" charts the atypical view of psychoanalysis prevalent in most classic films - a.k.a - everything is linked to one's childhood trauma, repression and guilt. That shortcoming aside, "The Snake Pit" is a stark, often disturbing, melodrama about life inside a mental asylum. It charts the dementia of Virginia (Olivia de Havilland), a woman suffering from an emerging psychosis. De Havilland certainly delivers a stellar and shockingly dramatic performance in this apocalyptic vision of insanity under horrendous conditions. Leo Genn plays the sympathetic psychiatrist to whom Virginia's mental health is entrusted. Although it is through his care and patience that Virginia's psychosis is finally laid to rest, the film remains a sobering and critical view of the inner mental anguish that, more often than not, is incurable and debilitating.
THE TRANSFER: Troublesome. The gray scale is presented at a well balanced level. Blacks are generally solid. But age related artifacts are sometimes glaringly present. Film grain, as well as edge enhancement and pixelization are present for an image quality that is rarely smooth and only moderately easy on the eyes. The audio has been cleaned up and is nicely presented.
EXTRAS: Fox Studio Line is about as skimpy on extras as is the rest of their output of classic films on DVD. One wonders why the distinction is made between "Studio" titles and just regular releases. Here we get a sparse audio commentary, some stills and theatrical trailers. Big deal!
Bottom Line: I recommend this film for its performances. The DVD is not up to reference quality or anywhere near what it should be looking like.

I'm 22 years old so obviously, this movie was waaaaaay before my time and was even before my parents' time. Despite that, it has remained one of my favorites since I first viewed it ten years ago.

The story is based around Virgina Cunningham who is placed in a mental hospital after suffering an apparent mental breakdown. The movie focuses around her slow recovery with the help of a patient, insightful doctor and her husband who is desperate to understand the nature of his wife's illness.

Although the story is great, the setting is the real star of the film. The hospital with its raving...sometimes even frightening patients, the overcrowded conditions, and sometimes cruel nurses make the viewer sympathize with de Havilland's frightened and confused character. This is a real gem of its time and still holds up well.

The venerable Olivia de Havilland displayed her superior acting talent passionately portraying Virginia Cunningham in a challenging role in Anatole Litvack's impressive "The Snake Pit".
De Havilland is a newly married aspiring writer with a mysterious closely guarded past. Her husband Robert played by Mark Stevens is confused as she suddenly succumbs to mental illness culminating in a nervous breakdown.

De Havilland is institutionalized in a state mental hospital which is recreated in a frighteningly realistic manner by director Litvack. She is confused and unsure of her surroundings. With the help of a sympathetic and dedicated psychiatrist Dr. Kik played excellently by Englishman Leo Genn, de Havilland struggles to regain her sanity.

Intense psychotherapy reveals a psychosis wih roots in de Havilland's childhood. As a child de Havilland adored her father but received little love from her mother. When her dad sided with her mother against her, she wished him dead. When he unexpectedly died soon after, she felt responsible. She repressed her feelings covering them in layer upon layer of guilt.

Litvack wonderfully created the setting of the flick which greatly enhanced the reality of the situation. The actors playing the inmates in the asylum did well in their roles. Helen Craig was particularly effective playing the haughty and unsympathetic Nurse Davis, who had an adversarial relationship with de Havilland throughout the film.

You loved Olivia when she starred with Flynn. You also liked her (with very good reasons) when she won her two Academy Awards (To each his own, The heiress), but you have never seen her playing like here before. Absolutely thrilling. If she had had to won a third Oscar, she would have never deserved it better than here. Completely deglamourized, absolutely perfect, faultlessly adopting all the traits of a mental illness woman trying to survive and to understand what she is suffering and living. The clue for her future is in her past. With a flair of Film-noir when adapting a real mental case, Litvak must have been proud for having allowed the people having had the chance of enjoying that MASTERPIECE. Pay attention to Betsy Blair in her supporting part - a stealscener.