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■ The Snake Pit is a film of which the motion picture industry may feel proud. It is a great social document that will inevitably lead to reforms in a shameful area of American life; it is highly educational in a field about which the general public knows little; it is technically brilliant; and from beginning to end it is absorbing, dramatic entertainment.
Based on the novel by Mary Jane Ward, The Snake Pit tells the story of one woman's experiences in a typical state mental hospital. In so doing, it manages to give a sharp and dreadful picture of the conditions and atmosphere of the entire institution — the many types of mental cases there incarcerated; the techniques used in attempts to cure them; the tragic neglect and incomplete treatments which result from the disgraceful fact that,, in the wealthiest nation on earth, there simply aren't enough doctors and nurses in this typical establishment to cope with the terrible overcrowding.
The main character, played with magnificent range and depth by Olivia de Havilland, is Virginia Cunningham, a nervous breakdown case. You follow her progress as she goes part w:ay along the road back to mental health, relapses, goes forward again. Gradually, as her husband (Mark Stevens) tells what he knows of her history and the psychiatrist (Leo Genn) delves deep into her background through the use of hypnotic narcosynthesis and electric shock treatments, you learn the causes of her breakdown. Finally, as these dark and buried reasons are made clear to Virginia herself, she is cured.
Anatole Litvak has directed The Snake Pit with masterly judgment and skill and the acting, down to the smallest role, seems flawlessly realistic. Under the leadership of Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century-Fox has produced a courageous and unforgettable work of art.
On these pages, we give you the story in pictures.
1. As The Snake Pit begins, Virginia Cunningham (Olivia de Havilland) finds herself an inmate in a mental hospital. Bewildered, suspicious and fearful, she can't recall her husband
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