The Snake Pit

press release:

SUN., 12/4, 2 p.m. THE SNAKE PIT: USA | 1948 | 35mm | 108 min.

Director: Anatole Litvak; Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Celeste Holm

Director Litvak’s still harrowing drama about mental illness features de Havilland as a young woman suffering from delusions and extreme anxiety. Her conditions are exacerbated when she enters a corrupt mental institution. A significant feather in the cap of socially-conscious Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, The Snake Pit was based on a book by Mary Jane Ward, whose writing was inspired by her own experiences following a nervous breakdown.

Sunday Cinematheque at the Chazen: Kirk Douglas and Olivia de Havilland at 100!

For our Fall 2016 Sunday afternoon series at the Chazen Museum of Art, we will salute two legendary actors who turn 100 years-old in 2016. A force in Hollywood for over four decades, Olivia de Havilland (born July 1, 1916) distinguished herself as a contract player at Warner Bros. during the late 1930s and early 1940s, appearing as leading lady to Errol Flynn in several action spectaculars like Captain Blood. Later on at Paramount Studios, she won two Oscars for The Heiress and To Each His Own. A supporting player in a handful of late '40s features, Kirk Douglas quickly rose to the ranks of leading man and practically invented the notion of the anti-hero in such Hollywood features as Champion and Ace in the Hole. Later, Douglas formed his own powerful production company, Bryna, and appeared in some of the best-remembered films of the '50s and '60s, like Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory, The Vikings and Lonely are the Brave. Douglas 100th birthday will be observed in our regular venue, 4070 Vilas Hall, on December 11 with a newly restored version of the Douglas/Kubrick classic Spartacus.