The Snake Pit

Rating:
Summary: Gripping and dramatically real.
Review: One of the first films to seriously tackle the subject of mental illness, this Oscar-winner remains to have its power to hold the viewer and not let go until the final scene fades out. Even after 50 years from its original release, this landmark film presents a disturbing look into the walls of a mental institution through the eyes of a young, struggling writer, who has a breakdown in her health and fears her surroundings, her life, and even her husband. How she copes with her pain is the highlight of the picture, with several scenes that will make you cringe with what happens in mental hospitals. The noise of the insane and the wailings of being lost in the dark fathoms of the foggy mind won an Oscar for this film for its sound, and was nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actress (Olivia de Havilland),Screenplay Adaptation from the novel by Mary Jane Ward, and Best Music Score, composed by Alfred Newman, whose wailing of the violins and shrieking horns and screaming trumpets echo the striking pain of those who have lost their minds. This is a true film classic.

Rating:
Summary: A milestone
Review: Sure it is not as scary as todays dramas about mental institutions, where rape happens, personal attacks by members of the hospital happen, but it is great to see this movie and for Olivia de Havilland's great work. When you learn about the cause of her illness, well, it is mild compared to what you see these days, but it is great anyway.
She really deserved to win the award for this movie, but I guess it's like Bette Davis' first Oscar, for the wrong movie.

Rating:
Summary: Olivia de Havilland is Amazing
Review: The Snake Pit was released at a time (late Forties) when Hollywood was taking a more serious look at important issues. This film deals with mental illness and mental institutions, and does so in a direct and honest way. Olivia de Havilland stars as a wife / aspiring writer whose husband, Mark Stevens, has to commit her to an institution when her irrational behaviour becomes too much to deal with. In the institution, she fights to regain her mental health with the assistance of a kind doctor, Leo Genn. But it's not easy, and the film shows the setbacks she faces, not to mention the horrors of life in an asylum. She is subjected to electroshock treatments, cruel nurses, and patients even more disturbed than she is, all in conditions that could hardly foster improved mental health. It truly resembles a snake pit, particularly in one memorable shot taken above the bizarre goings-on below. Although the honest presentation of the subject matter is important, the real strength in the movie lies in de Havilland's performance. She's incredible in a role that showcases her dramatic ability to it's full extent. She manages not to go over the top, which would have been easy to do given the subject matter, and she makes the character believable and sympathetic. The film and de Havilland's performance should be seen.

Rating:
Summary: A review
Review: This movie (I can imagine) was a landmark at the time it was made; an inside glimpse of a mental institution. Olivia de Havilland was on the mark with her portrayal of a young woman fighting to get well.

Rating:
Summary: Olivia's top-notch performance
Review: You loved Olivia when she starred with Flynn. You also liked her (with very good reasons) when she won her two Academy Awards (To each his own, The heiress), but you have never seen her playing like here before. Absolutely thrilling. If she had had to won a third Oscar, she would have never deserved it better than here. Completely deglamourized, absolutely perfect, faultlessly adopting all the traits of a mental illness woman trying to survive and to understand what she is suffering and living. The clue for her future is in her past. With a flair of Film-noir when adapting a real mental case, Litvak must have been proud for having allowed the people having had the chance of enjoying that MASTERPIECE. Pay attention to Betsy Blair in her supporting part - a stealscener.