The Snake Pit (UK-import)
Oscar-winning 1948 drama about mental illness, hailed on its release as brave and groundbreaking. Olivia de Havilland stars as Virginia Cunningham, a young woman with an outwardly normal life, married to a loyal, kind husband, Robert (Mark Stevens). When Virginia's behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, her husband seeks professional help, and Virginia is referred to the state mental institution, a harsh, overcrowded hospital where residents who do not agree to 'realign their thinking' are threatened with the 'snake pit', an open ward to which the most severe cases are consigned. The story is told in flashback as Virginia, who on her arrival at the asylum cannot remember how she came to be there, gradually recounts her sad tale to the one compassionate member of staff in the place, psychiatrist Dr Mark Kick (Leo Glenn).
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