Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Olivia de Havilland | ... | Virginia Stuart Cunningham | |
Mark Stevens | ... | Robert Cunningham | |
Leo Genn | ... | Dr. Mark Kik | |
Celeste Holm | ... | Grace | |
Glenn Langan | ... | Dr. Terry | |
Helen Craig | ... | Nurse Davis | |
Leif Erickson | ... | Gordon | |
Beulah Bondi | ... | Mrs. Greer | |
Lee Patrick | ... | Asylum Inmate | |
Howard Freeman | ... | Dr. Curtis | |
Natalie Schafer | ... | Mrs. Stuart | |
Ruth Donnelly | ... | Ruth | |
Katherine Locke | ... | Margaret | |
Frank Conroy | ... | Dr. Jonathan Gifford | |
Minna Gombell | ... | Miss Hart |
Virginia Cunningham finds herself in a state insane asylum...and can't remember how she got there. In flashback, her husband Robert relates their courtship, their marriage, and her developing symptoms. The asylum staff are not demonized, but fear, ignorance, and regimentation keep Virginia in a state of misery as pipe-smoking Dr. Mark Kik struggles through wheels within wheels to find the root of her problem. Then a relapse plunges Virginia back into the harrowing 'Snake Pit'. Written by Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
The beginning of this movie has Virginia Cunningham sitting on bench but her not knowing where she is. She soon finds out that she is in a mental hospital. She doesn't know why she's there. She doesn't even know her husband when he appears. The only allegiance she can form is with Dr.Kik,who she trusts. This is a time when mental patients were treated horribly. May 6th seems to be the underlying problem with her mental condition. Everyone she lost seems to revolve around this date, and on the out side, she gets completely paranoid when she knows this date is coming. Through Dr. Kik's compassion and shock treatments & psychotherapy, she gets to understand why she became ill. But,that's the beginning and end of the picture. What happens in the middle(all contained in the hospital) is a memorable performance given by Olvia DeHavilland, the treatment she gets, the other patients, the nurses,the darkness of the hospital all add up to, I think one of the best movies made.