The Snake Pit
Married and in love... with a man she didn't know or want!
Country
Production
Budget
$0
Box office
$0
Director
Actors
Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Glenn Langan, Helen Craig, Leif Erickson, Beulah Bondi, Lee Patrick, Howard Freeman
All actors and roles (10)
All actors and roles (10)
Scenario
Producer
Robert Bassler, Anatole Litvak, Darryl F. Zanuck
Camera operator
Composer
Artist
Audition
Editing
Dorothy Spencer
Whole Team (16)
Whole Team (16)
Short description
Virginia Cunningham is confused upon finding herself in a mental hospital, with no memory of her arrival at the institution. Tormented by delusions and unable to even recognize her husband, Robert, she is treated by Dr. Mark Kik, who is determined to get to the root of her mental illness. As her treatment progresses, flashbacks depict events in Virginia's life that may have contributed to her instability.
What's left behind the scenes
- Anatole Litvak originally offered the lead role to Ingrid Bergman, but she declined.
- After the film's release, mental health laws were changed in 13 states.
- The novel by Mary Jane Ward (1905-1981), which served as the literary source for the film, is an autobiographical account of everything the author endured in various psychiatric clinics. Published in 1946, the book became the subject of fierce controversy, as it was essentially a literary condemnation of the methods used to treat people in psychiatric institutions (a topic that was taboo in the 1940s). The novel became a bestseller.
- Director Anatole Litvak insisted that the film crew visit mental institutions and attend lectures by psychiatrists for three months. Olivia de Havilland immersed herself completely in the preparation for the shoot—she visited relevant institutions, observed electroconvulsive therapy and hydrotherapy sessions, and, whenever permitted, even attended private meetings between specialists and patients. She also attended recreational activities within the mental clinics.
- Anatole Litvak scheduled the filming in the institution first, then arranged a month-long break between those scenes and the flashbacks to give Olivia de Havilland a chance to recover. While filming the scenes in the institution, Litvak forbade the actresses playing the patients from wearing bras or corsets, and also prohibited them from visiting hairdressers. De Havilland even went on a diet to give her character a haggard appearance.
- For the filming of the flashbacks, Olivia de Havilland wore dresses two sizes too large, and to ensure she didn't look too polished, Litvak ordered that her eyebrows be powdered.
- The film's release in the UK was delayed by a year because films about insanity were prohibited there. The studio even cut some scenes of Olivia de Havilland's character's treatment to avoid objections from censors. They even decided to remove the preface, which used a scrolling text to explain to the viewer that these were all hired actors and that the film in no way reflected the actual situation in psychiatric institutions in the UK. Following this, the film received rave reviews in the British press.
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Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
