The stress of preparing for her role in
The Snake Pit has been suggested as one reason for Olivia de Havilland's famous snub of her sister Joan Fontaine at the Academy Awards® in 1947. After de Havilland won for
To Each His Own (1946), Fontaine tried to congratulate her backstage. De Havilland turned from her instead, and photographers captured the moment for posterity. The two had been arguing over de Havilland's marriage to writer Marcus Goodrich, 15 years her senior.
Leo Genn's character, Dr. Kik, was named for the nickname by which Mary Jane Ward's doctor, Dr. Gerard Chrzanowski, asked his patients to address him.
While Leif Erickson was playing the man whose sudden death was contributed to leading lady de Havilland's mental problems and eventual institutionalization, his ex-wife, actress Frances Farmer, was going through her own nightmare while confined to a state mental hospital in Washington State.
Jan Clayton, who sings the folk song "Goin' Home" at the hospital party near the film's end, had recently created the role of Julie Jordan in the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein musical
Carousel on Broadway.
The actress playing Virginia's mothers in flashbacks is Natalie Schafer, better known to viewers as Lovey Howell on the popular TV series
Gilligan's Island.
In her memoirs, Ginger Rogers wrote that she had turned down
The Snake Pit and de Havilland's Oscar®-winning role in
To Each His Own. "Perhaps," she said, "Olivia should thank me for such poor judgment."
During the filming of
The Snake Pit, de Havilland was harassed by three different stalkers. The worst, an artist from Chicago who had sent her pictures inscribed with strange symbols, eventually came to Los Angeles in hopes of meeting her. When he was arrested, police psychologists learned that he thought himself St. Paul.
by Frank Miller
Famous Quotes from THE SNAKE PIT (1948)
"It's hard to keep on being civil when they ask you such annoying questions." -- Olivia de Havilland, as Virginia Cunningham, responding in voiceover to the voices she hears in her head
"I'm worried about you Virginia. I wasn't going to tell you this, but I'm going to One. Maybe I'll be leaving from there. Before long I'll be on my own, wondering where the next meal's coming from." -- Celeste Holm, as Grace, the patient who tries to help de Havilland, as Virginia Cunningham, when she first arrives at the hospital
"Oh, I see it's a zoo...a tour. I don't like a zoo, do you? I don't like the smell, and I'm sorry for the animals locked up in cages." -- De Havilland, as Virginia, mistaking the mental hospital
"People are friendly in New York...or maybe just fresh. I've never seen her before and she calls me Virginia. What am I supposed to say? 'Hi, kiddo?" -- De Havilland, responding to a nurse's greeting
"Maybe you'll think it's strange to ask you this, but somehow people never remember my face. Do you know who I am, Mrs. Cunningham?"
"Of course."
"You do? Tell me."
"Don't you know?
"If you don't mind, would you tell me just the same?"
"The warden."
"The warden of what?"
"Of this prison."
"Is there any reason why you should be in prison?"
"Why, yes, of course. I'm writing a novel about prisons, and I've come here to study conditions and take notes. About one day's worth, thank you, and I'm going to leave now." -- Leo Genn, as Dr. Kik, recognizing de Havilland's disorientation
"You know, I'll be really sorry to leave those poor girls." -- de Havilland, believing her own fantasy
"My head hurts. There's something the matter with my head."
"Come on, darling, let me help you."
"Who are you? Why do you torture me? Why do you lie to me?" -- de Havilland, failing to recognize Mark Stevens, as Jerry Cunningham, in a flashback to her initial breakdown
"Now then, Virginia...that's your name isn't it?"
"If you know, why do you ask me?" -- Howard Freeman, as Dr. Curtis, examining de Havilland at her sanity hearing
"My husband, Mr. Greer, is very wealthy. I have more jewels than I can possibly wear. You, of course, are a charity patient?"
"Oh, no. It so happens that my husband, Mr. Cunningham, is very wealthy. My diamonds simply weigh me down."
"I have the Hope Diamond."
"I have the Hopeless Emerald! It carries the Cunningham Curse. You've probably read about it."
"Mr. Greer..."
"You husband?"
"Mr. Greer, my husband, considered buying it, but it has a flaw. You see, you can't put an imperfect stone on the most beautiful hands in the world." -- Beulah Bondi, as Mrs. Greer, trading fantasies with de Havilland.
"Going home, going home, I am going home." -- Jan Clayton, as Singing Inmate, at a party for the ward
"I'd have to be a doctor to put it into the right words. But I'm sure it wasn't because of any one thing. It was a lot of things. And it started when...when I was a child. I don't know yet everything that caused it, but I do know that I'll be able to see life for myself differently than before I came here." -- De Havilland at her second hearing, explaining her illness
"I feel so crowded already I don't know where it's going to end."
"I'll tell you where it's going to end, Miss Somerville. When there are more sick ones than well ones, the sick ones will lock the well ones up." -- Jacqueline deWit as Miss Somerville, in need of comfort on learning that de Havilland is leaving
"Goodbye...Virginia."
"Oh, Hester, you've talked. I knew you would. You're going to get well now. I know you will." -- Betsy Blair, as Hester, speaking for the first time when de Havilland leaves
"If ever you feel you want to talk to me, you know where to find me. Goodbye, and good luck."
"Remember at the dance, I was going to tell another reason for knowing I was getting well?...It's that I'm not in love with you any more."
"You never really were, Virginia." -- Genn, as Dr. Kik, saying goodbye to de Havilland
"Say, folks! The bus is leaving, or don't you care?"
"Don't we care? Come on, Jerry, we're going home." -- Attendant, shipping de Havilland and Stevens, as Jerry Cunningham, off for good
