Olivia de Havilland plays a woman who wakes up in a mental hospital with no memory of how she got there in “The Snake Pit.” Director Anatole Litvak (“Confessions of a Nazi Spy” 1939) put together a revealing and engrossing motion picture from a screenplay by Frank Partos and Millen Brand, adapted from the 1946 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Mary Jane Ward. This motion picture was an expose of sorts that so shocking to the 1940’s general public that it led to reforms in mental institutions.
The cast includes Olivia de Havilland, Celeste Holm, Leo Glenn, Mark Stevens, Leif Erickson, Lee Patrick, Beula Bondi, Natalie Shafer, Frank Conroy, Katherine Locke, and Celia Lovsky, who later gained fame as Vulcan matriarch T’Pau on the original “Star Trek” television series (1966-1969). The very watchable “The Snake Pit” was popular at the box office for producer Darryl F. Zanuck and 20th Century Fox.
It was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning one for Best Sound. The five non-winners include Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (de Havilland), Best Screenplay, and Best Musical Score (Alfred Newman).
The Snake Pit (1948)
cinema
My Review
Olivia de Havilland plays a woman who wakes up in a mental hospital with no memory of how she got there in “The Snake Pit.” Director Anatole Litvak (“Confessions of a Nazi Spy” 1939) put together a revealing and engrossing motion picture from a screenplay by Frank Partos and Millen Brand, adapted from the 1946 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Mary Jane Ward. This motion picture was an expose of sorts that so shocking to the 1940’s general public that it led to reforms in mental institutions.
The cast includes Olivia de Havilland, Celeste Holm, Leo Glenn, Mark Stevens, Leif Erickson, Lee Patrick, Beula Bondi, Natalie Shafer, Frank Conroy, Katherine Locke, and Celia Lovsky, who later gained fame as Vulcan matriarch T’Pau on the original “Star Trek” television series (1966-1969). The very watchable “The Snake Pit” was popular at the box office for producer Darryl F. Zanuck and 20th Century Fox.
It was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning one for Best Sound. The five non-winners include Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (de Havilland), Best Screenplay, and Best Musical Score (Alfred Newman).