Product Details

• Actors: Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Glenn Langan
• Directors: Anatole Litvak
• Writers: Arthur Laurents, Frank Partos, Mary Jane Ward, Millen Brand
• Producers: Anatole Litvak, Darryl F. Zanuck, Robert Bassler
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302878543
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45,601 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

A woman's husband places her in a state mental institution in the ope that her illness will be understood. Frightened, irrational, and yet, at times insightful, she must spend several months under the care of her compassionate doctor before she can face the troubling secrets of her past and be cured. Received 6 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars INSIDE "THE SNAKE PIT"......, June 4, 2004

By 

Mark Norvell (HOUSTON) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Snake Pit (DVD)

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.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Olivia de Havilland is Amazing, March 13, 2000

By 

James L. - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Snake Pit [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wow! This one really packs a punch!, July 13, 2001

By 

Rod Labbe (Waterville, Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Snake Pit [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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!