Psychoanalysis was obviously in vogue as a film subject in Hollywood in the 40's but this time it's not tagged on to some apposite thriller pretext as in say, "Spellbound" or "The Locket". Adapted from a contemporary autobiographical novel, it seeks to tell the story of one amongst many everyday female patients suffering from mental illness. Said patient of course is star Olivia de Havilland in the role of Virginia Cunningham, a pretty young would-be writer, who after a whirlwind courtship and marriage to her handsome young auditor husband, starts to exhibit symptoms of paranoia.
It's not long before he's had her committed to a sanitarium where she comes under the benign stewardship of Dr Kik, a good-looking, svelte-voiced psychiatrist played by Leo Genn, who takes a personal interest in her well-being, which being the backward forties sees her almost immediately forced to endure electric shock treatment and hydrotherapy in seemingly ineffective attempts to bring her back to her right mind. Having read stories of the likes of Rosemary Kennedy and Frances Farmer, these scenes are quite appalling to witness, the more so as they seem to be completely commonplace and acceptable practices of the time.
Naturally we see Virginia ensconced with a large number of fellow-patients all exhibiting their own different neuroses, giving the asylum a cliched, almost Bedlam-esque sense of strangeness and danger. I'm pretty sure that not every patient in an asylum exhibits such individually unusual characteristics as the women with whom De Havilland shares her accommodation do and felt this aspect was overdone. Just as cliched is the representation of the white uniformed female nursing staff who are largely depicted as strict, uncaring and unprofessional in their duties and wouldn't you know it, the senior nurse's intolerant behaviour towards De Havilland is explained down to her being in love with the good doctor.
But having dispensed with the afore-mentioned inhumane treatments, of course it's good old Freudian technique (the venerable professor's photograph is prominently featured on the doctor's wall) which gets to the bottom of Olivia's phobia and is unsurprisingly revealed as a father complex, which seems to miraculously heal her in a pat conclusion and allow her to leave for home with her ever-loving and ever-supportive husband, but not before director Litvak gives her a stomach-churning send-off with all the patients singing "Going Home" at the annual dance in the hospital where we see the sexes rather awkwardly mixed for the first time. Even as I appreciated the acting of principals De Havilland and Genn amongst others and some imaginative shots from director Litvak, especially when depicting the snake pit of the title, I couldn't fully connect with what I saw here. I suspect in reality conditions were far harsher for the patients.
Of course any unease on my part may have been the point of the movie, in exposing to public gaze the harsh and often cruel treatment of, in particular, female mental patients in America at that time. However for me, the film somehow seemed to lack any great whistle-blowing zeal and I also felt there were too many concessions to melodrama which only served to imbalance the narrative.
In summary, a well-meaning if ultimately misjudged treatment of a serious subject, one that is if anything even more relevant today than it was then.
It's not long before he's had her committed to a sanitarium where she comes under the benign stewardship of Dr Kik, a good-looking, svelte-voiced psychiatrist played by Leo Genn, who takes a personal interest in her well-being, which being the backward forties sees her almost immediately forced to endure electric shock treatment and hydrotherapy in seemingly ineffective attempts to bring her back to her right mind. Having read stories of the likes of Rosemary Kennedy and Frances Farmer, these scenes are quite appalling to witness, the more so as they seem to be completely commonplace and acceptable practices of the time.
Naturally we see Virginia ensconced with a large number of fellow-patients all exhibiting their own different neuroses, giving the asylum a cliched, almost Bedlam-esque sense of strangeness and danger. I'm pretty sure that not every patient in an asylum exhibits such individually unusual characteristics as the women with whom De Havilland shares her accommodation do and felt this aspect was overdone. Just as cliched is the representation of the white uniformed female nursing staff who are largely depicted as strict, uncaring and unprofessional in their duties and wouldn't you know it, the senior nurse's intolerant behaviour towards De Havilland is explained down to her being in love with the good doctor.
But having dispensed with the afore-mentioned inhumane treatments, of course it's good old Freudian technique (the venerable professor's photograph is prominently featured on the doctor's wall) which gets to the bottom of Olivia's phobia and is unsurprisingly revealed as a father complex, which seems to miraculously heal her in a pat conclusion and allow her to leave for home with her ever-loving and ever-supportive husband, but not before director Litvak gives her a stomach-churning send-off with all the patients singing "Going Home" at the annual dance in the hospital where we see the sexes rather awkwardly mixed for the first time. Even as I appreciated the acting of principals De Havilland and Genn amongst others and some imaginative shots from director Litvak, especially when depicting the snake pit of the title, I couldn't fully connect with what I saw here. I suspect in reality conditions were far harsher for the patients.
Of course any unease on my part may have been the point of the movie, in exposing to public gaze the harsh and often cruel treatment of, in particular, female mental patients in America at that time. However for me, the film somehow seemed to lack any great whistle-blowing zeal and I also felt there were too many concessions to melodrama which only served to imbalance the narrative.
In summary, a well-meaning if ultimately misjudged treatment of a serious subject, one that is if anything even more relevant today than it was then.