![]() ![]() While Virginia’s illness is portrayed realistically, her cure is a little too straightforward though one must remember the medical treatments are limited to knowledge and practices of more than 60 years ago. The nursing staff headed by Nurse Davis (Helen Craig) an obvious relative to Nurse Ratched who seems to derive pleasure, in one of the film’s most shocking scenes, when she turns on the juice over and over again during the administration of Virginia’s Electro-Shock sessions. The conditions inside the institution are horrid. ![]() Here she discovers the roots of her illness, the pain and guilt she has been carrying inside, and ultimately she is cured. Eventually with the help of a caring doctor (Leo Glenn) Virginia begins to explore her subconscious delving back to her childhood, (through flashbacks), the strict upbringing by her mother and the loss of a considerate father. She is subjected to electro-shock therapy and other treatments, forced to live in a dorm like environment with other patients. At her lowest point, Virginia is incapable of remembering who she is, where she is or why. We follow her as she slowly finds her way back from depths of insanity. The film tells the story of Virginia Cunningham, a young married woman who has a nervous breakdown and is committed to a mental hospital. Director Litvak wanted the actors and crew members to visit mental institutions in order to experience first hand what it was like. She apparently also was able to spend time in doctor/patient therapy sessions. de Havilland threw herself into the role, spending time researching, personally watching shock therapy treatments and visiting institutions, talking with doctors, nurses and patients. Olivia de Havilland was not the first choice for the role, that spot went to Gene Tierney who had to bow out due to a pregnancy. 20 th Century Fox finally agreed to make the film, which Litvak would not only direct but co-produced. Naturally, the subject matter was considered too controversial and downbeat for most studios. After reading Ward’s first person novel, director Anatole Litvak wanted to bring the harrowing story to the screen. Mary Jane Ward’s novel was based on her own experiences as a patient in a psychiatric hospital. The institutional living conditions these people were forced to live in was swept under the rug, as they say. Mental Illness was not dealt with on screen, at least not at the level and detail seen here. There were few films in 1948 that match up to the power of Anatole Litvak’s “The Snake Pit,” a film that was groundbreaking in its day. ![]()
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