The Snake Pit (1948)

Anatole Litvak: The Snake Pit (US 1948) with Helen Craig (Miss Davis), Olivia de Havilland (Virginia Stuart Cunningham) and Beulah Bondi (Mrs. Greer).

La fossa dei serpenti / Käärmeenpesä / Ormgropen / Die Schlangengrube / La Fosse aux serpents.

    US 1948. Prod.: Anatole Litvak, Robert Bassler per Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. 

    Director: Anatole Litvak. Sog.: dal romanzo omonimo (1946) di Mary Jane Ward. Scen.: Arthur Laurents. F.: Leo Tover. M.: Dorothy Spencer. Scgf.: Lyle Wheeler, Joseph C. Wright. Mus.: Alfred Newman. 

    Int.: Olivia de Havilland (Virginia Stuart Cunningham), Mark Stevens (Robert Cunningham), Leo Genn (dr. Mark Kik), Celeste Holm (Grace), Glenn Langan (dr. Terry), Helen Craig (Miss Davis), Leif Erickson (Gordon), Beulah Bondi (Mrs. Greer).

    Soundtrack main theme (including in a farewell chorus and during end credits): "Goin' Home" from the II movement (Largo) in Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" / Symfonie č. 9 e moll "Z nového světa" (1893) by Antonín Dvořák.

    108’. Bn.

    Helsinki premiere 16 Sep 1949 Adlon, Rea.

    35 mm print from BFI, concession by Park Circus

    Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2024: Journeys Into Night: The World of Anatole Litvak.

    E-subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti Londra.

    Viewed at Cinema Jolly, 26 June 2024.

Ehsan Khoshbakht (Bologna Catalogue 2024): "A trailblazing work in its depiction of psychoanalysis and mental illness, The Snake Pit came after Anatole Litvak’s failed attempt to make a film about Sigmund Freud. Instead, Freud’s framed picture hung on a wall and his ideas filled the film that became effectively the first overt depiction of the Oedipus complex in a Hollywood film, with Columbia’s The Dark Past following the same year."

"Litvak, who during the war made films about soldiers suffering from and being treated for PTSD, came across the bestselling semi-autobiographical novel by Mary Jane Ward about a recently married woman (to be played by Olivia de Havilland) admitted to a psychiatric ward with symptoms of severe schizophrenia. Litvak bought the rights for a huge sum but there was no interest from any studio in this grim subject-matter. Later, Darryl Zanuck saw the potential and gave Litvak the green light to co-produce and direct. Despite months’ long research in New York hospitals, the first draft by Frank Partos and Millen Brand was rejected. Arthur Laurents wrote the version we see, but ironically remained uncredited due to a dispute with the Screen Writers Guild."

"The cruel treatment of the patients in the film sparked outrage, quite surprisingly, in the UK where 12 minutes of the film had to be cut out by the censors. The film’s earnest humanist approach meant more investment in scientific facts, letting the drama falter at points but continually picking it up with potent visual ideas and fine dialogue. There’s also a great deal of attention paid to time (shots of clocks) and doors. Their symbolic significance aside, Litvak makes the mental hospital look like a stand-in for a concentration camp, with hollow-eyed, desperate women wandering around in numbered robes and Polish, Italian and German dialogue on the soundtrack. He relives his war memories in the form of melodrama. Like the post-war films of George Stevens, Litvak translates the horror into stories that seemingly bear no relationship to the memories and ideas that have shaped them. Wrapped up in multiple layers, the pain is too great to be revealed openly." Ehsan Khoshbakht (Bologna Catalogue 2024)

AA: Psychoanalysis became a force to reckon with in popular culture in the 1910s in films ranging from The Case of Becky (US 1915, Blanche Sweet channeling split personality) to Fritz Lang thrillers (doorplate "Dr. Mabuse - Psychoanalyse").

The Snake Pit is a key example of the second wave of psychoanalysis in the cinema, along with films such as Lady in the Dark, Spellbound, The Dark Past and Whirlpool.

It belongs to the essence of both cinema and psychoanalysis that no profession has met with more ridicule and misunderstanding on the silver screen. Even when the intention is positive, the doctor may be portrayed as an oracle or miracle worker. Meanwhile cinema, even newsreels, as a medium of dreamwork is deeper in psychoanalytical terrain than film-makers themselves always realize. 

Ehsan Khoshbakht in his program note above alerts us to Anatole Litvak's commitment to Sigmund Freud and also what I would characterize as the "poetry after Auschwitz" dimension: the forlorn, incarcerated women subjected to straitjackets, narcosynthesis and electric shocks and hovering around like living dead. The Snake Pit is a movie relevant to film noir.

I would also promote The Snake Pit as an Olivia de Havilland vehicle. After her epochal victory in the fight for independence from the studios, she embarked on a series of unusual roles, including To Each His Own, The Dark Mirror, The Snake Pit and The Heiress.

Yesterday we saw a sober and credible movie about the world of mental disorders, The Annihilation of Fish by Charles Burnett. In The Snake Pit, the strident chords of the Alfred Newman score lead us to expect the opposite, a sensationalist exploitation movie.

It is not. Olivia de Havilland's anti-glamour approach makes it special. She bravely explores the agony of losing one's mental balance. Anatole Litvak casts a benevolent look on the patients in general. As Khoshbakht states above, during his war service Litvak got familiar with mental disorders, and a compassion for those with conditions is the overwhelming impression.

The Snake Pit is sympathetic to psychoanalysis, and it is not portrayed as a miracle cure. Realities are made plain. Good treatment takes time, time is money, and resources are limited. The Snake Pit was indeed a sensation in a good way, leading to increased awareness of mental health - and growing investments in hospitals and therapy.

After the movie I joined an Italian family for lunch. We discussed Gone With the Wind and agreed that Olivia de Havilland as Melanie is our favourite.

SOLITUDE

US 1952. Director: Duke Goldstone. Int.: Harry Carney, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Duke Ellington, Jimmy Grissom, Quentin Jackson, Britt Woodman. Prod.: Snader Telescriptions. DCP. 4’. Bn.

RECOVERED AND RESTORED

From: Library of Congress

AA: A straight performance Snader Telescription in a digital restoration by the Library of Congress.