Snake Pit with Olivia de Havilland: DVD Cover

    Snake Pit Director: Anatole Litvak Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm

    DVD - Black & White / Stereo / Mono Learn more

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    • DVD Release Date: 06/01/2004
    • Original Release: 1948
    • Rating: Not Rated
    • Sales Rank: 14,542

    Viewer Rating: (5 ratings)

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    • Overview
    • Editorial Reviews
    • Scenes
    • Customer Reviews
    • Cast & Crew
    • Full Product Details

    Features

    Closed Caption; Commentary by film historian and author Aubrey Solomon; Movietone News: "N.Y. Film Critics Honor Olivia de Havilland," "National Magazines Make Film Awards," "Showmen Honor 'The Snake Pit,'" "Special Film Award Is Presented for 'The Snake Pit,'" "Motion Picture Academy Awards Film 'Oscars'"; Still gallery; Theatrical trailer; Full-frame format (aspect ratio 1.33:1); Audio: English stereo, English mono, French mono, Spanish mono; Subtitles: English, Spanish

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    Scene Index

    Side #1 --
    1. Main Titles/Voices
    2. A Trip to the Zoo
    3. Prison Warden
    4. Case History
    5. Broken Date
    6. May 12th
    7. Shock Therapy
    8. One of Them
    9. Pushing Time
    10. Picnic Lunch
    11. Too Many Patients
    12. 6:30 Sharp
    13. When Am I Real?
    14. Staff Interview
    15. Drowning
    16. Ward 12
    17. Visiting Day
    18. Barter
    19. The Hope Diamond
    20. Doll Story
    21. Father Figure
    22. Miss Davis
    23. Fall From Grace
    24. Snake Pit
    25. Final Analysis
    26. At the Dance
    27. Going Home
    28. Officially Cured

    Scene Index

    Editorial Reviews

    "A woman loses her mind and is confined to a mental institution." That's the usual TV-listing encapsulation of The Snake Pit -- and like most such encapsulations, it only scratches the film's surface. Olivia de Havilland stars as an outwardly normal young woman, married to loyal, kindly Mark Stevens. As de Havilland's behavior becomes more and more erratic, however, Stevens comes to the sad conclusion that she needs professional help. She is sent to an overcrowded state hospital for treatment -- a curious set-up, in that, while de Havilland is treated with compassion by soft-spoken psychiatrist Leo Genn, she is sorely abused by resentful matrons and profoundly disturbed patients. Throughout the film, she is threatened with being clapped into "the snake pit" -- an open room where the most severe cases are permitted to roam about and jabber incoherently -- if she doesn't realign her thinking. In retrospect, it seems that de Havilland's biggest "crime" is that she wants to do her own thinking, and that she isn't satisfied with merely being a loving wife. While this subtext may not have been intentional, it's worth noting that de Havilland escapes permanent confinement only when she agrees to march to everyone else's beat. Amazingly, Olivia de Havilland didn't win an Academy Award for her harrowing performance in The Snake Pit (the only Oscar won by the film was for sound recording). While some of the psychological verbiage in this adaptation of Mary Jane Ward's autobiographical novel seems antiquated and overly simplistic today, The Snake Pit was rightly hosannahed as a breakthrough film in 1948. Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

    Customer Reviews

    Snake Pitby Anonymous

    Reader Rating:
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    July 23, 2004: Anatole Litvak's 'The Snake Pit' charts the atypical view of psychoanalysis prevalent in most classic films - a.k.a - everything is linked to one's childhood trauma, repression of that trauma and subsequent guilt. That shortcoming aside, 'The Snake Pit' is a stark, often disturbing, melodrama about life inside a mental asylum. It charts the dementia of Virginia Cunningham (Olivia de Havilland), a woman suffering from an emerging psychosis in which she has developed an intense paranoia of distrust and fear against her placid husband, Robert (Mark Stevens). Leo Genn plays the sympathetic psychiatrist, Dr. Mark Kick to whom Virginia's mental health is entrusted. It is through his care and patience that Virginia's psychosis is finally laid to rest. The ending ? true to Hollywood?s golden age conventions ? infused with hope and promise, nevertheless offers a critical commentary on the inner mental anguish that, more often than not, is incurable and debilitating. De Havilland delivers a stellar and shockingly dramatic performance. The film is an apocalyptic vision of insanity under horrendous conditions. The transfer is troublesome. Although the gray scale is presented at a well balanced level, and blacks are generally solid, age related artifacts are sometimes glaringly present. Film grain, as well as edge enhancement and pixelization are present for an image quality that is rarely smooth and only moderately easy on the eyes. The audio has been cleaned up and is nicely presented. Fox Studio Line is about as skimpy on extras as is the rest of their output of classic films on DVD. One wonders why the distinction is made between 'Studio' titles and just regular releases. Here we get a sparse audio commentary, some stills and theatrical trailers. Big deal! I recommend this film for its performances, but the DVD is not up to reference quality.

    Snake Pitby Anonymous

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    May 31, 2004: First of all, what issues does the reviewer Hal Erickson have?-- ''In retrospect, it seems that deHavilland's biggest 'crime' is that she wants to do her own thinking, and that she isn't satisfied with merely being a loving wife.''-- Where did he pull that from? This movie is great. You can f-e-e-l the pain of these people. And when they sing that beautiful song 'Goin' Home' it brought a lump to my throught. Olivia de Havilland is just such an amazing actress, and so were the supports. How about Hester? She was so convincing.

    This review was written about the VHS edition.


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