Word: virginia
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Here & there the picture shows glints of a typically slick Hollywood finish. It is more specious than convincing when it tries to get across the point that schizophrenia is something that "can happen to anybody." And Virginia's cure, once she turns the corner, seems suspiciously quick, easy and well-timed for a happy ending (in reality, she might very likely suffer a relapse). But with all its minor faults, The Snake Pit is an important motion picture. One of its notable achievements is that it establishes Olivia de Havilland not so much as a star, a dubious title...
...Actress. The De Havilland performance is happily free of the traditional weeping and gnashing of teeth which most actors seem to relish in "mad" parts. Her Virginia is not thrashing about in darkness, but is blinded and bewildered by too much light. What gives her bewilderment a special quality is the firm, almost prim, dignity which she sustains even in the animal moments of Virginia's madness. She is excellent in the little scenes of rebellion-carefully preserved from the novel-with which Virginia tries to shake off her fate. And she can speak lines of questionable worth with...
...dominant quality of De Havil-land's Virginia is the contrast between her madness and the pretty, still-young face. In her case, insanity seems as" incongruous as in Ophelia's. This quality gives her entire performance the profound sadness of Laertes' question: . . . Is't possible a young maid's wits should be as mortal as an old man's life...
Even the booming oil industry had done such a good job of expanding to meet the fuel shortage that oil was plentiful: prices of gasoline and fuel oil were being reduced. Soft coal was also piling up, partly because of a drop in exports. Many Kentucky and West Virginia mines had cut back to a three-or four-day work week. Said Bert A. Astrup, assistant general sales manager for Shell Oil Co.: "We've rounded the Horn and we're in a buyers' market...
...Harper's team is his wife Virginia, whom he met while she was a clerical worker at the agency, and married in 1942. She is now assistant director of McCann-Erickson's copy research department. Having no children, Mr. & Mrs. Harper sometimes stay at the office until 2 a.m., working together. Says Mrs. Harper: "I think he's quite bright...