The Snake Pit (1948) from Tuna

The Snake Pit is based on Mary Jane Ward's autobiographical account of her own journey through mental illness and its treatment, changing many particulars from Ward's life, and focusing on a linear narrative of her psychoanalysis, but still portraying her experience realistically enough to move you. The film takes its title from an ancient practice of throwing insane people into a pit of snakes, based on the theory that any situation which would drive a normal person insane would also drive an insane person normal. We see the modern snake pit of a public mental health institution through the patient's eyes, and we hear her thoughts.

The film opens with the central character on a bench in what appears to be a park. Men are asking her questions. The camera gradually pulls back from her face to reveal that there are no men around, only a single female patient, and that the male voices must be in her head. She and various other patients are then lined up, and marched into the building, but she has no idea where she is or why, and remembers nothing of her past life.

This is followed by a period of exposition in which her husband tells what he knows of her history to her doctor. Over the next several weeks, the doctor begins to break through a little at a time. Her husband, encouraged by some administrators who want to free up a bed, then requests her release against the advice of her doctor. Before she can be released, however, she must "go to staff", a process something like a parole board hearing, in which the entire staff interviews her, and then approves or disapproves her release. This hearing proves to be such a traumatic experience for her that she regresses, and ends up in a ward for patients who are more seriously ill.

Ultimately, her treatment would include electroshock therapy, ice baths and being placed in one of the "back wards," where the most deeply disturbed patients were kept. Time after time she would make progress, only to have some event trigger a relapse.

Censorship and the standards of societal decency being what they were in 1948, some of the seedier sex and language aspects of state mental health institutions could not be depicted in the film. Were it made today, a more accurate portrait could be painted, but the filmmakers still did a wonderful job of allowing us to experience what she experienced. Much of the film was shot in actual "back wards" at Camarillo State Hospital in California. I had occasion to visit two state mental institutions in the early 60s, and can tell you that the film makers did their homework. Many of the scenes were 100% accurate, based on my first hand knowledge. The film was rather balanced in showing that some staff were caring, while others were detrimental to the patients. It was also very strong in showing both the positive and negative effects of the insane upon each other.

The role required a very strong performance by the lead, and Olivia de Havilland delivered one which was nominated for an Oscar. Had she not already won a Best Actress statuette just two years earlier for To Each His Own, she probably would have won this one over Jane Wyman.

In actuality, the real Mary Jane Ward was first placed in a private institution that was very good at costing her husband money, but not at all competent at treating her. When he ran out of money, she was transferred to a state institution. Finally, her husband was able to find and afford a decent institution, where she did, in fact, recover.

The state mental health system is all but gone now in the U.S. The current practice is to detain, medicate and release those deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. Granted that modern psychoactive drugs can allow some patients to function normally in society, there are still a lot of people wandering around who are not successfully functioning. One has to wonder how much progress we have really made since 1948.