Trivia for
The Snake Pit (1948) More at IMDbPro »

• The character of the gentle psychiatrist was based on the real-life career of Dr. Gerard Chrzanowski, who told his patients to call him simply "Dr. Kik." Dr. Chrzanowski died in November, 2000 at age 87.
  
  
• Mary Jane Ward's book, the basis for this film, was an autobiographical account of the author's experiences in psychiatric hospitals. The book caused considerable controversy upon its publication in 1946, as it was a scathing indictment of the treatment of psychiatric patients, a subject considered taboo in the 1940s. Naturally, the book was a runaway bestseller.
  
  
• The title stems from an ancient practice of dealing with the mentally ill where they were thrown into a pit of snakes. The theory was that something like that would make a normal person insane, therefore it must work in reverse.
  
  
• Much of the film was shot in actual wards at Camarillo State Mental Hospital in California.
  
  
• The British censor insisted on a foreword explaining that everyone in the film was an actor and that conditions in British mental hospitals were unlike those depicted.
  
  
• When Virginia and Robert go to the movies in their courtship days, the offscreen fanfare indicates that they are watching a 20th Century Fox film, the same studio that made "The Snake Pit".
  
  
• Gene Tierney was the first choice to star but dropped out due to her pregnancy.
  
  
• Ginger Rogers wrote that she turned down the lead in this film, as well as To Each His Own (1946), both of which Olivia de Havilland accepted. Olivia won an Oscar for To Each His Own (1946) and was nominated for this film. Rogers wrote: "It seemed Olivia knew a good thing when she saw it. Perhaps Olivia should thank me for such poor judgment".
  
  

Related Links