The Snake Pit is a 1948 American psychological drama film directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Beulah Bondi, and Lee Patrick.

[4][5] Based on Mary Jane Ward's 1946 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, the film recounts the tale of a woman who finds herself in an insane asylum and cannot remember how she got there.

The film depicts the bureaucratic regimentation of the institution, the staff (some unkind and aloof, some kind and empathetic), and relationships between patients, from which Virginia learns as much as she does in therapy.

When the book The Snake Pit was still in galleys, the president of Random House, Bennett Cerf, showed it to his friend Anatole Litvak, who bought the rights.

With The Snake Pit, Zanuck added mental patients to Jews and the poor as groups left out of the American dream.

Thus, the Communist Party USA's People's Daily World hailed it as "A Film Achievement" and explained that it "does not foster an argument that the solution to our problems lies in new regiments of psychoanalysts".

[12] The film has come under fire from some feminist authors for a seeming misportrayal of Virginia's difficulties and the implication that accepting a subservient role as a wife and mother is part of her "cure".

[15] The censor also cut 1,000 feet of the film, deleting all sequences involving patients in straitjackets, and lighter scenes evoking laughter.

In 1949, Herb Stein of Daily Variety wrote "Wisconsin is the seventh state to institute reforms in its mental hospitals as a result of The Snake Pit.

"[19] Publicity releases from Twentieth Century-Fox claimed that twenty-six of the then forty-eight states had enacted reform legislation because of the movie.

While it is wise to be cautious about claims that a film changed social policy, recent scholarship suggests that such an assertion may be valid.

One reformer connected to The Snake Pit who does not appear in histories of psychiatry was Charles Schlaifler, a key figure in getting federal support for mental health after World War II.

In 1942, Schlaifler became a vice president for advertising at the Fox studio, and was put in charge of public relations for The Snake Pit.

While Schlaifler had no interest in creating a social movement, he played a key role in making mental illness a national concern, not just the business of individual states.

More concretely, he helped convince members of Congress to dramatically increase funds to combat mental illness, and was treated as an authority because of his work on The Snake Pit.