The Snake Pit (1948)
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The mental hospital is organized on a system of wards, with the best functioning patients assigned to the wards with the lowest numbers, which have better furnishings and more relaxed rules for patient behavior. Virginia moves to the lowest level (One), where she is treated well by a young nurse but is picked on by Nurse Davis, 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.
This post is dedicated to Crystal and Phyllis who are commemorating the 100th birthday of Olivia de Havilland with a blogathon. I chose The Snake Pit (1948). Virginia Cunningham (Olivia de Havilland) has a mystery to solve. How has she come to be in an insane asylum, and how will she escape her ordeal The unraveling of her delusions and the connecting-the-dots to uncover the truth is the tale based on the semi-autobiographical book, The Snake Pit, which spellbound the nation and became an instant success for its author, Mary Jane Ward.
The film employs effective cinematic shots by director Anatole Litvak. The analogy of the snake pit explained by Virginia Cunningham visually shows her looking down the 32 floors where the patients slither over and around each other and the nurses. All the best shots in the world would have meant little if it were not for the outstanding performance by Olivia de Havilland. Most are familiar with her soft-spoken, polite countenance such as Melanie in Gone with the Wind. Here, in The Snake Pit, it is a delightful surprise to see her reach deep inside and play a complicated character with complete conviction. Happy Birthday, Olivia. Thank you for a fine performance; my respect for your talents has reached new heights.
The best part of the movie is the talented cast of supporting players around Olivia de Havilland, especially those playing her fellow patients. Besides Celeste Holm, there's a young Betsy Blair (Marty) playing a silent, dangerous woman who tries to strangle anyone who touches her. We're used to seeing Blair as a mousy sweetheart, and here she's as dangerous as a coiled snake. Beulah Bondi plays a demented matron, and 30s comedienne Ruth Donnelly, familiar from a long list of sexy pre-code movies, is a friendly associate. Also on view are Minna Gombell, Virginia Brissac (Rebel without a Cause, Monsieur Verdoux), Ann Doran, and Isabel Jewell from Lost Horizon and The Seventh Victim. Of special note is Katherine Locke as a particularly deluded inmate; her tortured face is well remembered from the bizarre and depressing film noir Try and Get Me!
The classy Fox production maintains a realistic tension from the beginning when Alfred Newman's ominous chords are heard over the logo instead of the Fox fanfare. It is heard in one of the flashbacks when Virginia goes to a movie theater. The music score stays off to the side and only comes to the fore in the dreamlike terror scene, when Virginia finds herself in the midst of a 'snakepit' of screaming, lost women. 59ce067264
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