The Snake Pit

1948
12
1h 48m

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

8.8K

YOUR RATING

Olivia de Havilland in The Snake Pit (1948)

Trailer for this heart-stirring dramatic thunderbolt

Play trailer2:23

1 Video

99+ Photos

Psychological Drama Drama Mystery

Virginia Cunningham can't recall how she landed in an asylum. In flashback, her husband Robert relates their courtship, marriage, and her developing symptoms. She remains in misery as Dr. Ma... Read allVirginia Cunningham can't recall how she landed in an asylum. In flashback, her husband Robert relates their courtship, marriage, and her developing symptoms. She remains in misery as Dr. Mark Kik tries to solve her problem.Virginia Cunningham can't recall how she landed in an asylum. In flashback, her husband Robert relates their courtship, marriage, and her developing symptoms. She remains in misery as Dr. Mark Kik tries to solve her problem.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

8.8K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 1 Oscar
- 13 wins & 10 nominations total

Videos1

Trailer 2:23

The Snake Pit

Photos125

+ 119

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Thirteen states changed their laws concerning mental health issues after the film's release.

Goofs
After the young Virginia smashes the head of the soldier doll (that reminds her of her father) into several pieces, she is later seen carrying the unbroken doll on the night of her father's death. The intact doll again appears in the apartment that she lives in as an adult. However, Virginia most likely received a new doll of the same kind when her father discovered the other one was no longer intact.

Quotes
Robert Cunningham: Tell me, what have you been doing all these months?
Virginia Stuart Cunningham: Working 18 hours a day and being lonely 24.

Connections
Featured in Biography: Darryl F. Zanuck: 20th Century Filmmaker (1995)

Soundtracks
Overture
(1842) (uncredited)
from "Tannhäuser"
Composed by Richard Wagner
Played at a concert

User reviews86

Featured review

8/10

....a ground-breaking film....

Considered brutal and scary in the day of its initial release, "The Snake Pit" was a ground-breaking film with its look into the horrors of a mental institution. Giving the film its vibrancy and life is the elegant Olivia De Havilland. This fine actress goes to town in this fascinating portrait of a young woman, Virginia Stuart, who, soon after marriage to the handsome Robert Cunningham (Mark Stevens) , descends into a world of paranoia and insanity. He takes her to an institution, but conditions there are foreign to Virginia. This Hollywoodization of life in a mental hospital, though tame compared to reality, still packs a punch. We follow this delusional woman as she tries to come to grips with where she is, falls in love with her kind-hearted doctor, Mark Kirk (Leo Genn), befriends other patients, and tries to hide out in the hospital. Celeste Holm has a minor, but welcome role as Grace, a fellow patient who takes a liking to and protects the confused Virginia.

What a score for the lovely De Havilland! She really gets to show her stuff in this emotional role, and got an Oscar-nomination for her efforts. And kudos to director Anatole Litvak for a wonderful, but hard-to-take visit into a woman's not-all-there mind and her institutionalized world.