The Snake Pit is a film adaption of the novel by Mary Jane Ward, who told the self-experienced story about her time in an insane asylum.
Virgina (de Havilland) finds herself in a psychiatric hospital, and can't remember how she got there. Already in the first scene, sitting on a park bench in the asylum's garden, we see her talking to herself, imagining a man asking her questions and suspecting a fellow inmate (Holm) of being the man in disguise.
The story folds out in time, and we learn that Virginia has suffered a nervous breakdown. She is married to Robert (Stevens, an actor I fell in love with after watching him in the film noir The Dark Corner, 1946), but she can't remember him and gets frightened when he visits her. With the help of shock therapy Virginia gets contact with the real world, and Dr. Kik (the charming British actor Genn) is able to start digging in her past to find out what caused her mental illness.
Ward's novel, published in 1946, caused a great controversy upon its release for its deption of the brutal treatment of mentally ill patients. Of course, it became a bestseller.
Dr. Kik (based on the real life person Dr. Gerard Chrzanowski, who told the patients to simply call him "Dr. Kik" due to his complicated last name) was something out of the ordinary in that time, almost solely treating his patients with psychotherapy.
There is one scene in particular, where his different point of view is made obvious. Dr. Kik is in a meeting with the other doctors, complaining about the overcrowded mental asylums in the country. They want to send Virginia home due to the hospital being overcrowded, while Dr. Kik doesn't think she is ready for it, and likely will become more ill if she is sent away. One Dr. Curtis starts reading statistics about how many patients they have, and how many the hospitals are intended for, and concludes:
"The trouble is that for you, each case is the one, and for us it's one of thousands."
Dr. Kik responds:
"Yes, Curtis, one of thousands - even millions. But only by trying making each case the one can we really help the patient."
And there we have the problem with the treatment of mental illness in a nutshell. Even though the situation is much better today, everyone who has at least a little bit of experience from that area can recognize the hardened nurses and ignorant doctors, and probably feel a bit sick when realizing how much of it is still there 60 years later.
(Now, don't think that I'm a total weirdo, but I've had my little share of the mental institutions and their staff, and that's quite enough for me.)
Scene: Virginia has been moved to the worst department in the asylum, where she makes the connection to being in a snake pit.
I can't help but connecting The Snake Pit with Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar from 1963. Quite frightening reading with almost brutal black humour.
Now to the title of the film. It's explained in the film itself, but if you haven't seen it the choice of the title is really interesting. It is derived from a way of treating mentally ill long ago, where they through the sick people into snake pits. The thought was that such a thing would drive a sane person insane, and that it also should work vice versa. Oh, the inventiveness of man.
I always liked Olivia de Havilland before, but now I think she is making it to the top five of my favorite actresses. Her performance in this film is inconveniently real, and I found myself not being able to sit still while watching her most tragic freakouts. My favourite part of her characterization is when she slowly becomes better. Even though it's obvious to all the people around, she is so worried that maybe feeling better is a sign of really becoming insane. (Been there, done that.)
I believe that those who will appreciate this film the most are people who have had mental illness in their life, whether it has affected yourself or someone close to you.
The Snake Pit only won an Academy Award for Best Sound, Recording, but it was nominated to a bunch of them. De Havilland was nominated for Best Actress (but was robbed by Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda) and Anatole Litvak was nominated for Best Director (won by John Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre). The other nominations were for Best Picture (won by Olivier's Hamlet), Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (The Red Shoes) and Best Writing, Screenplay (again, John Huston and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre).
But we can comfort ourselves with the fact that de Havilland won the Best Actress Oscar in 1947 for To Each His Own (1946), and again in 1950 for The Heiress (1949).
All in all - see this movie if you haven't! It's an order!
I've noticed that you can find a great deal of classic films, divided in parts of ca 10 minutes, on YouTube. That made me very happy, since it soon will be hard to get ahold of these old films in Sweden. Not as many as you'd like can be found on DVD, and soon you can get busted real hard for downloading... Anyway, I thought a could link to the first part of the movies that I have seen on YouTube, beginning with today's A Letter to Three Wives: link
Three women and long-time friends are taking a trip for the day with a boat. Just when the boat is about to leave a messenger boy brings a letter from a fourth woman, who we understand the women have very jealous feelings for, to the three of them. The letter tells them that the fourth woman, Addie Ross, have left town with a little souvenir - one of their husbands. The three women looks longingly after the telephone booth as the boat leaves shore.
Mrs. Hollingsway, Mrs. Phipps and Mrs. Bishop. Who has been abandoned?
During the day we get a closer look on the women's marraiges through retrospects.
The first story is about Deborah Bishop (Jeanne Crain) and her husband Brad (Jeffrey Lynn). Deborah and Brad met during the war, and Brad brought her home to his small town as a wife. She is, however, uncomfortable with meeting his friends who have known each other for years. Her hair is too messy, her dress is too old-fashioned, she feels that she will emberass her husband in front of his friends. Is it Brad who has left his wife with Addie Ross?
Deborah (Jeanne Crain).
The second story is that of Rita Phipps (Ann Sothern) and her husband George (Kirk Douglas). The couple have been married for seven years, but certain aspects are beginning to tear on their marriage. Rita is trying to make a career as a radio playwright and invites her bosses over for dinner. The bosses, a middle-aged couple named Mr. and Mrs. Manleigh, especially George. They insist on listening to bad radio theatre and condescend George for not liking what they see as professional writing. (George is in fact a Shakespeare-quoting school teacher.) The dinner ends with George telling Rita's bosses what he thinks of them and their taste in litterature, and a strond argument between husband and wife. Could it be George who has left Rita for Addie Ross?
Rita (Ann Sothern).
The last story is that about Lora Mae Hollingsway (Linda Darnell). She comes from a poor family and a house that almost fall to pieces every time a train passes it. She begins to have an affair with her boss, Porter Hollingsway (Paul Douglas in his motion picture debut). He is a wealthy business man who already has a marriage behind him, but Lora Mae insists that she wants a man that will marry her. After a while Porter gives up and marries her, being crazy about her, but is still sure that she only wants his money. Have Porter had enough of gold digging women, and run off with Addie Ross?
Lora Mae (Linda Darnell).
With Joseph L. Mankiewicz as the director, I had great expectations for this film, and I am happy to announce that my expectations were well fulfilled. A smart, witty dialogue, fantastic manuscript, interesting plot and the character's destinies were well summarized. The actors and actresses are well chosen for their parts and played their characters without any possibility for the viewer to complain. Thelma Ritter as the house keeper Sadie is cynical with a perfect feeling of comic timing, as usual in her parts (for example All About Eve from 1950 and Rear Window, 1954). See her in the following scene, were Porter Hollingsway picks Lora Mae up for a date.
"Good night, Mother dear, and don't wait up." If a daughter of mine ever really talked like that I'd cut her tongue out!
And who is Addie Ross? The mysterious woman that conserns everyone in this film, but we still never see. She is the narrator of the film, seducingly chuckling about her importance to all the characters. I thought I recognized the voice, but I couldn't quite place it. Thank heavens for IMDb - she was no less than Celeste Holm! When the film was released the identity of Addie Ross was not revealed, and many "Who is Addie?" contests were held all over the United States. Originally there were supposed to be four wives (in the novel the film is based on there were five), and the fourth woman would have been played by Anne Baxter. Unfortunately one woman had to go, the film would have been too long otherwise. (When Mankiewicz had told producer Darryl F. Zanuck, also producer to All About Eve, about the length problem he simply said "Take out one of the wives.". If only all problems were that easy to solve!)
Quotes:
Addie Ross: She won't stay mad at him for long. She's too much in love. Pretty soon she'll be full of self-reproach. Ha ha! Women are so silly.
Mrs. Finney: Can't we have peace in this house even on New Year's Eve? Sadie: You got it mixed up with Christmas. New Year's Eve is when people go back to killing each other.
Porter Hollingsway: It's a man's world. Yeah! See something you want, go after it and get it! That's nature. It's why we're made strong and women weak. Strong conquer and provide for the weak. That's what a man's for! Teach our kids that, there'd be more men!
George Phipps: The purpose of radio writing, as far as I can see, is to prove to the masses that a deodorant can bring happiness... a mouth wash guarantee success and a laxative attract romance.
Bette Davis and Gary Merrill in All About Eve. This picture is glorious - click on it for a higher resolution. Trivia: Davis and Merrill fell in love during the filming of All About Eve. Even though they both were married , they got divorced and married each other. They were married for ten years.
I've recently re-watched two of my favourite films from the 1950's - Sunset Blvd. and All About Eve, both from 1950. I saw a lot of similarities between them, both in the films themselves and the story behind them. I thought that they could do great in a post together.
Sunset Blvd. Director: Billy Wilder USA 1950 115 min
Characters: Joe Gillis - a B-move script writer and the narrator of the film. Norma Desmond - an isolated, forgotten silent movie queen. Max von Mayerling - Norma Desmond's butler and ex-husband. Betty Schaefer - a script reader wanting to become a successful script writer.
Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) is an aging silent moviestar, living in a gigantic mansion with her butler Max von Mayerling (Erich von Stroheim), isolated from the outside world. One day Joe Gillis (William Holden) finds himself stranded at Norma Desmond's driveway with a flat tire. The time couldn't have been better - Norma Desmond is planning a come-back to the audience she thinks is still waiting for her, and wants Gillis' help with the script. Gillis, full of unpaid debts, feels he has nothing to loose and moves in with Norma to become her toy boy. Soon though, he tires of the unadventurous luxuary in the mansion, and starts sneaking out at night to write a script with his best friend's fiancée Betty Schaefer (Nancy Olson), while Norma battles with her paranoia, jealousy and fear of aging.
Margo Channing - a successful theatre actress not longer in her golden years of youth. Eve Harrington - a theatre devotee, Margo's greatest admirer, who wants a career of her own. Addison DeWitt - an intelligent theatre columnist. Bill Sampson - director at the theatre and Margo's lover. Lloyd Richards - the theatre playwright. Karen Richards - the playwrights wife and Margo's best friend.
This film tells the story about the charming and secretely manipulative woman Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), and how she found her way from being a nobody to become the most admired actress in the theatre world. The path she chooses to reach her goal makes it necessary for her to charm, cheat and use everyone in her way. Eve Harrington's way to the stars begins with her getting to meet her greatest theatre idol - Margo Channing (Bette Davis), a hardened, skeptical and articulate woman in her 40's, tiring of always getting parts playing 20. But that is something Eve soon shows willing to change.
So, the similarities are...?
Begins with the end.
The first likeness between Sunset Blvd. and All About Eve is noticed right from the beginning - both films begin their story by revealing the end. Both movies are also narrated. While Sunset Blvd. has exclusively one narrator, All About Eve shifts its narrating between the different characters, but dominated by Addison DeWitt.
The first scene in All About Eve takes place at the Sara Siddons Award, where the award for Best Actress is just going to be presented. We hear the voice of Addison DeWitt (played with great bravura by George Sanders), who presents the characters, starting with himself ("My name is Addison DeWitt. My native habitat is the theater. In it I toil not, neither do I spin. I am a critic and commentator. I am essential to the theatre."). Margo Channing is introduced to us with the following words:
Margo Channing is a star of the theater. She made her first stage appearance at the age of four in Midsummer Night's Dream. She played a fairy and entered, quite unexpectedly, stark naked. She has been a star ever since. Margo is a great star, a true star. She never was or will be anything less or anything else.
After that we are introduced to Karen (Celeste Holm making a wonderful performance), the playwright Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe) and director and Bill Sampson (Gary Merrill). And last, but not least, Miss Eve Harrington, receiving the award, with all the earlier mentioned skeptically glancing toward her.
Sunset Blvd. begins with a corpse in a Hollywood moviestar's pool. Policemen and photographers surround the body, which we get to see both from above the surface and from an upwards angle, under the water. The man had been shot three times - twice in the chest and once in the back. The narrator, Joe Gillis, informs us that it is he who lies in the pool:
The poor dope - he always wanted a pool. Well, in the end, he got himself a pool.
Gillis begins to tell us the story about how a B-movie script writer ended up dead in a movie star's pool.
Comeback parts.
Another similarity concerns the leading actresses, who both made great and successful comebacks with their parts in All About Eve and Sunset Blvd.
Gloria Swanson belonged to those who made the step from silent to talking pictures in the late 1920's, but still her career declined a bit into the 1930's. From 1934 she didn't appear on screen (apart from one film she made 1941), but instead she used her time to politics and art. When Mae West, Pola Negri and Mary Pickford all had declined the role of Norma Desmond, however, Gloria Swanson received the offer. She accepted, and there it was - the part she would be most remembered for in movie history.
Bette Davis was one of the most celebrated actresses in the 1930's, but a bit into the 1940's even her career began to fail. Her films became flops, and she was on great bit on her way to be all forgotten. When Darryl F. Zanuck (the producer to All About Eve) wanted someone to play the role of Margo Channing it was out of the question that Bette Davis could play her. (They couldn't stand each other, going as far back as 1941 when Davis walked out on her post as president of The Motion Picture Academy.) He had visualized Marlene Dietrich in the leading role, and director Joseph L. Mankievicz hoped for Claudette Colbert, whom they eventually settled for. Unfortunaly (or fortunately), Colbert suffered a raptured disc while filming Three Came Home (1950), and had to decline. Bette Davis stepped into the part, saved her career and did an immortal performance as the aging diva Margo Channing.
Both Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson were believed to actually more or less be their characters. Gloria Swanson wanting a comeback, Bette Davis bitter about getting old. But to quote Gloria Swanson:
It's amazing to find that so many people, who I thought really knew me, could have thought that Sunset Blvd. was autobiographical. I've got nobody floating in my swimming pool.
And I guess that goes for Bette Davis too. After all, it demands quite a lot of self perspective to appear on screen with no make up, tape in her hair and a thick layer of some strange moist in her face. A lot of people also thought that Margo Channing was based on actress Tallulah Bankhead (which it wasn't), but it was that rumour who made Bankhead say following about Bette Davis:
Don't think I don't know who's been spreading gossip about me . . . After all the nice things I've said about that hag. When I get hold of her, I'll tear out every hair of her mustache!
Older women falling for younger men and aging paranoia.
One of the main themes in both of the films is the trouble of successful women getting older. Both Margo Channing and Norma Desmond falls for a younger man and are plagued with the knowing that women are no longer seen as attractive when they passed the 30-mark, while men on the other hand always have the charm of the grey temples. In short, oth the leading female characters in the films are worried deeply that their men soon will be tired and leave them for a younger woman.
Immortal quotes.
Sunset Blvd:
Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big. Norma Desmond: I am big. It's the pictures that got small.
Norma Desmond: All right, Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close up.
All About Eve:
Margo Channing: Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!
Birdie: All of a sudden she's playing Hamlet's mother.
Perfect cast. (Left to right: George Sanders, Gary Merrill, Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm, Hugh Marlowe, William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Nancy Olson, Erich von Stroheim.)
Down to the smallest supporting roles, both of these films have been perfectly cast. All characters symbolize something, and if you had taken away any character (feel free to choose anyone) the film wouldn't be as great as it is. Notable in All About Eve is Marilyn Monroe in one of her first screen appearances as Miss Casswell. See film clip:
Of course, there are also a lot of differences between the films and their characters. For example Margo Channing is a quite normal (?) woman in a crisis, while Norma Desmond is a mental fuck-up. Also, Sunset Blvd. has a darker shimmer over it (being a classic film noir) than All About Eve. Even though either of the films endings can be seen as simply sad or happy, there is at least some hope left for the viewer when THE END hits the screen after watching All About Eve. But I don't find it particularly interesting to discuss the differences between two entirely different movies, the similarities interest me far more. But of course, I am open for discussion.
Scene: Bette Davis in her best element in a fabulous scene you will never be able to forget.
Scene: Joe Gillis and Norma Desmond in their first encounter. Brilliant.
Academy Awards
It may seem strange that neither Bette Davis nor Gloria Swanson won the Oscar for Best Actress, but that it instead went to Judy Holiday for Born Yesterday (1950). I'm sure Judy was a real darling, but her part in that film is not even near the immortality Margo Channing and Norma Desmond have reached. The theory behind the whole thing is that when Anne Baxter saw to it that she would be nominated for Best Actress and not Best Actress in Supporting Role, she caused the votes to split so that they weren't enough for either of them to win the award. How awful.
Anyway, All About Eve ended up with the six Oscars:
Best Actor in Supporting Role, George Sanders
Best Director, Joseph L. Mankievicz
Best Picture
Best Writing, Screenplay, Joseph L. Mankievicz
Best Costume Design Black and White
Best Sound, Recording
Sunset Blvd won three Oscars:
Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, Billy Wilder
Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White
Spanish poster (transl. Nest of Vipers). 
The beautiful and amazing Olivia de Havilland.
The beautiful and amazing Olivia de Havilland.
