The Snake Pit

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Cast

Olivia de Havilland
as Virginia Stuart Cunningham

Mark Stevens
as Robert Cunningham

Leo Genn
as Dr. Mark Kik

Celeste Holm
as Grace

Glenn Langan
as Dr. Terry

Helen Craig
as Miss Davis

Leif Erickson
as Gordon

Beulah Bondi
as Mrs. Greer

Lee Patrick
as Asylum Inmate

Isabel Jewell
as Asylum Inmate

Victoria Horne
as Asylum Inmate

Tamara Shayne
as Asylum Inmate

Grace Poggi
as Asylum Inmate

Howard Freeman
as Dr. Curtis

Natalie Schafer
as Mrs. Stuart

Ruth Donnelly
as Ruth

Katherine Locke
as Margaret

Frank Conroy
as Dr. Jonathan Gifford

Minna Gombell
as Miss Hart

June Storey
as Miss Bixby, the Ward Nurse

Ann Doran
as Valerie

Damian O'Flynn
as Mr. Stuart

Lora Lee Michel
as Virginia at Age 6

Esther Somers
as Nurse Vance

Jacqueline de Wit
as Celia Sommerville

Betsy Blair
as Hester

Lela Bliss
as Miss Greene

Virginia Brissac
as Miss Seiffert

Queenie Smith
as Lola

Mae Marsh
as Tommy's mother

Ashley Cowan
as Young Man

Sally Shepherd
as Nurse

Geraldine Garrick
as Patient

Therese Lyon
as Patient

Sylvia Andrew
as Patient

Jeri Jordan
as Patient

Marie Blake
as Patient

Ellen Lowe
as Patient

Minerva Urecal
as Patient

Barbara Pepper
as Patient

Jan Clayton
as Singing Inmate

Helen Servis
as Miss Servis

Celia Lovsky
as Gertrude

Lester Sharpe
as Doctor Somer

Mary Treen
as Nurse

Victoria Albright
as Virginia at Age 2

Dorothy Neumann
as Miss Neumann

Marion Marshall
as Young girl

Grayce Hampton
as Countess

Syd Saylor
as Visor

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Critic Reviews for The Snake Pit

Audience Reviews for The Snake Pit

• Oct 12, 2016

  I watched this movie in health class when I was 15 and it disturbed me so much it has made my list of movies that have given me ongoing nightmares. This movie is a little to real for the time, mental illness was seen as a made up sickness and medical professionals did not have the tools to appropriately treat these illnesses. A must see for those in the mental health field and anyone who liked Girl,Interrupted.
  Jessica S Super Reviewer
• Mar 26, 2014

  De Havilland is fantastic but the film falls a wee bit short in terms of really getting into the mental health issue. Nonetheless it is tremendously entertaining and I'm sure it was enlightening for the time.
  

  John B Super Reviewer
• Mar 13, 2011

  I think for it's time, this movie was probably groundbreaking, but to watch it now, it just seems kind of silly.
  Sarah P Super Reviewer
• Mar 13, 2010

  Few performances have equaled the raw power of Olivia de Havilland's in The Snake Pit. In the film, de Havilland plays Virginia, a young woman who suffers a mental breakdown and is committed to psychiatric hospital. We follow her treatment, diagnosis, and suffering as she climbs out of and falls back into the snake pit (in ancient times, the film explains, an insane person was lowered into a pit of snakes, the rationale being any sane person would be driven insane by the process, thus the opposite would occur for the insane). De Havilland is so amazing it's easy to overlook the story (which is quite well-written) or the direction (which is also amazing). In spite of all this, the film only won one oscar, for best sound recording. In the history of classic film, this one can get lost in the shuffle, and that's a shame.
  Devon B Super Reviewer

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