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Film · TMDB
7.1Virginia Cunningham is confused upon finding herself in a mental hospital, with no memory of her arrival at the institution. Tormented by delusions and unable to even recognize her husband, Robert, she is treated by Dr. Mark Kik, who is determined to get to the root of her mental illness. As her treatment progresses, flashbacks depict events in Virginia's life that may have contributed to her instability.
Cast
- Olivia de Havilland as Virginia Cunningham
- Mark Stevens as Robert Cunningham
- Leo Genn as Mark Kik
- Celeste Holm as Grace
- Glenn Langan as Dr. Terry
- Helen Craig as Nurse Davis
Themes
- chicago, illinois
- schizophrenia
- asylum
- flashback
- memory loss
- black and white
- based on memoir or autobiography
- mental illness
- doctor patient relationship
- electro shock
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Ratings
IMDb
7.6/10
8,803 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
100%
Metacritic
76/100
- Year
- 1948
- Runtime
- 108 min
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery
- Rated
- Approved
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 13 wins & 10 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Anatole Litvak
- Screenplay by
- Frank Partos , Millen Brand , Arthur Laurents (uncredited)
- Based on
- The Snake Pit , by Mary Jane Ward
- Produced by
- Robert Bassler , Anatole Litvak, Darryl F. Zanuck
- Starring
- Olivia de Havilland , Mark Stevens , Leo Genn , Celeste Holm
- Cinematography
- Leo Tover
- Edited by
- Dorothy Spencer
- Music by
- Alfred Newman
- Production company
- 20th Century-Fox
- Distributed by
- 20th Century-Fox
- Release date
- November 13, 1948 ( 1948-11-13 )
- Running time
- 108 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $3.8 million
- Box office
- $10 million
via Wikipedia infobox
Internet Archive
textsFilms about Psychiatry: 12 Monkeys, the Sixth Sense, the Snake Pit, Kings Row, Spellbound, Ordinary People, Good Will Hunting
Read online at Internet Archive →via archive.org
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Snake Pit is a 1948 American psychological drama film directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Beulah Bondi, and Lee Patrick. Based on Mary Jane Ward's 1946 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, the film recounts the tale of a woman who finds herself in an insane asylum and cannot remember how she got there.
The novel was adapted for the screen by Frank Partos and Millen Brand, in screen credits order, and Arthur Laurents (uncredited).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Snake Pit” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.