The Snake Pit (1948)

The Snake Pit
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Written by Frank Partos and Millen Brand from a novel by Mary Jane Ward
1948/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#219 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Virginia Stuart Cunningham: I’ll tell you where it’s gonna end, Miss Somerville… When there are more sick ones than well ones, the sick ones will lock the well ones up.[/box]

I didn’t remember liking this very much.  Imagine my surprise to see how great it was on the second viewing.

The story begins with a confused Virginia Stuart (Olivia de Havilland) trying to figure out where she is and where the voices she is hearing are coming from.  At first she thinks she may be in prison.  The audience soon discovers that this is actually the state mental hospital.

Virginia’s psychiatrist Dr. Kit (Leo Genn) interviews her husband Robert to get a history. The film then segues into flashback.  Virginia had been an aspiring writer in Chicago.  The couple met when Robert, who was then working as an editor, rejected a story she submitted.  The two met again at lunch in the company cafe and start dating.  Virginia didn’t talk about her past and seemed grateful not to answer any questions.  She disappeared one night and Robert moved to New York for a new job.  Then just as abruptly as she left, Virginia reappeared.  They started seeing each other again.

Virginia initially dodged all of Robert’s marriage proposals, then out of nowhere she brought up the subject herself.  They marry in haste.  After a few months, Virginia started having trouble sleeping and spent a lot of time staring out the window.  When Robert insisted on taking her to a doctor, she freaked out.

Virginia can’t remember anything, including the fact that she is married, and is unaware of her surroundings.  Since Richard had little knowledge of Virginia’s past, Dr. Kik decides the best course of treatment to break through to her is shock therapy.  We see poor terrified, confused Virginia undergo a series of treatments not knowing whether she is being executed for some crime she cannot recall.  But the therapy works and Dr. Kik begins the long process of psychoanalysis.  Treatment is not easy and Virginia suffers a couple of setbacks that send her back to square one.  But progress is eventually made and Virginia starts gradually to get well.

The 40’s were the heyday of Freudianism in films, but the Snake Pit is really mostly free of psychobabble.  We look at someone who is truly ill and needs help.  The film concentrates on the obstacles to getting helped, despite the good intentions of the majority of the staff, in the overcrowded, underfunded state mental health system.  Where it falls short is in Virginia’s rather abrupt breakthrough and the pat Oedipal explanation for all her problems.

Olivia de Havilland is phenomenal in this movie.  I believed her the whole time.  I forgot she was a movie star and just felt so sorry for her.  Her character tries so hard to please everybody despite having no clue what they really wanted from her.  I think she missed the Best Actress Oscar solely because she received the honor two years before . Litvak masterfully captures life in the mental hospital in all its bizarre detail and claustrophobia.  Recommended.

The Snake Pit won the Academy Award for Best Sound, Recording.  It was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actress; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

Trailer