THE SNAKE PIT (1948)

Even progressive films on social issues age better than movies about psychiatry and depictions of theory & treatment.  The latest ‘couch-side’ manner and trendy terminology sure to get ‘bad laughs’ before the first-run engagement ends.*   So credit all involved in this once shocking look at then current Insane Asylum practices for holding up as well as it does, at least up to some easy Freudian explanations laying out the initial causes of Olivia de Havilland’s mental deterioration.  It all goes back to infant issues and bad parenting . . . don’t it always.  Not that this need be wrong, but so neat & tidy; six minutes of flashbacks & narration does the trick.*  But before that, Anatole Litvak’s film remains unsettling & effective (especially when it’s not trying to explain the reasons for her breakdown) and in its eye-popping look at what such public mental facilities were like at the time.  (The film changed laws but decades would pass before many were shut down.)  Leo Genn is solid & sympathetic as a forward-thinking doctor; Mark Stevens is understanding itself as the confused husband; and there’s an unusually strong cast of character actors as patients, all slightly batty/decidedly scary.  Stand-outs include Betsy Blair (Mrs. Gene Kelly at the time), silent & prone to violence; Ann Doran as the toughest ward nurse; Jan Clayton, B’way’s original Julie Jordan in CAROUSEL, singing Dvorák’s ‘Going Home’ toward the end.  But it’s de Havilland’s make-up free honesty & terror along with Litvak’s fearless imagination (the visualization of the title one of the great pull-back shots), that make the film and keep you watching thru missteps.

DOUBLE-BILL:  *Generally considered the first Hollywood movie to deal with psychiatric issues in a sanatorium environment, Gregory La Cava’s PRIVATE WORLDS/’35 seems laughably naive when it speaks to causes & treatment, but shows real sophistication in setting up the various hang-ups and relationship crises.  It makes a fascinating watch between laughs, random insight and simplistic advice.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *More than a decade on, Alfred Hitchcock still felt this sort of explanatory summary needed by audiences to end PSYCHO/’60, though he undercuts patness with a final doubting closeup.