The Snake Pit | Full Movie | Movies Anywhere

This remains one of the best screen explorations of mental illness and its treatment.

As one of Hollywood's first "serious" chronicles of life in an asylum, the film is uneven, containing some intelligent observations but also lurid sequences and simplistic psychological explanations.

It's entertaining enough in a hysterical sort of way, even if it never matches up to the excesses of Fuller's later Shock Corridor.

For the audience of today, the primary draw of the picture is watching Olivia de Havilland deliver a particularly terrifying performance.