The Snake Pit

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The Snake Pit ★★★ ½ 1948

One of the first films to compassionately explore mental illness and its treatment. Following an emotional collapse Virginia (de Havilland) is placed in a mental institution by her husband, Robert (Stevens). The severity of her depression causes her sympathetic doctor (Genn) to try such treatments as electric shock, hydrotherapy, and drugs, along with the psychoanalysis which gradually allows her to accept her fears and make her recovery. Tour-deforce performance by de Havilland. Based on the novel by Mary Jane Ward. 108m/B VHS, DVD . Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Glenn Langan, Helen Craig, Leif Erickson, Beulah Bondi; D: Anatole Litvak; W: Frank Partos, Millen Brand; C: Leo Tover; M: Alfred Newman. Oscars '48: Sound; N.Y. Film Critics '48: Actress (de Havilland).

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