The Snake Pit
BBBB
(out of 5)
This glimpse into the world of mental illness has not dated all that well, but it’s a powerful subject that is dealt with very well for its time. Olivia de Havilland plays a young woman who succumbs to insanity and is put in an asylum to be cured. Upon her arrival there, she can’t remember what it was that lead her to this point, and the film is spent in flashback while her husband (Mark Stevens) goes over her life, courtship, marriage and everything else until the point she is at now. Her doctor (Leo Genn) tries his very best to find the key to her problem before she is forced back into a relapse and is in danger of being lost again. Very powerful stuff, led by a ripsnorting performance by the always terrific de Havilland.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
USA, 1948
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Screenplay by Frank Partos, Millen Brand, based on the novel by Mary Jane Ward
Cinematography by Leo Tover
Produced by Robert Bassler, Anatole Litvak
Music by Alfred Newman
Production Design by Lyle R. Wheeler, Joseph C. Wright
Costume Design by Bonnie Cashin
Film Editing by Dorothy Spencer
Film Festivals: Venice 1949
Cast Tags: Ann Doran, Betsy Blair, Beulah Bondi, Celeste Holm, Damian O’Flynn, Dorothy Neumann, Esther Somers, Frank Conroy, Glenn Langan,Grayce Hampton, Helen Craig, Howard Freeman, Jacqueline deWit, Jan Clayton, June Storey, Katherine Locke, Lee Patrick, Leif Erickson, Lela Bliss, Leo Genn, Lora Lee Michel, Mark Stevens, Minna Gombell, Natalie Schafer, Olivia de Havilland, Queenie Smith, Ruth Donnelly, Virginia Brissac
Academy Award
Best Sound Recording (20th Century-Fox Studio Sound Department, Thomas T. Moulton, sound director)
Nominations
Best Actress (Olivia de Havilland as “Virginia Stuart Cunningham”)
Best Directing (Anatole Litvak)
Best Music (Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) (Alfred Newman)
Best Motion Picture (20th Century-Fox)
Best Writing (Screenplay) (Frank Partos, Millen Brand)
New York Film Critics Award
Best Actress (Olivia de Havilland)
Nomination
Best Film
National Board Of Review Awards
Best Actress (Olivia de Havilland)
Top Ten Films
Venice Film Festival Awards
International Award
Best Actress (Olivia de Havilland)
Writers Guild Awards
The Robert Meltzer Award (Screenplay Dealing Most Ably with Problems Of the American Scene)
Best Written American Drama
Directors Guild Award Nomination
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Anatole Litvak)
