Director: Anatole Litvak
Year Released: 1948
Rating: 2.0
A fragile woman (Olivia de Havilland, acting up a damn storm) is sent to a mental hospital for treatment - there she meets with a kind psychoanalyst who helps her talk her way though her traumas with the aid of a framed picture of Freud hanging on the wall beaming rays of insight down upon her (basically, she's got some unresolved Daddy Issues). Along with The Three Faces of Eve, this belongs in that dubious pile of early Hollywood pictures that try to deal with psychiatry, except it's so melodramatic and eye-bulgingly hysterical (look at that evil wagging finger! look at that pool of ominous water!) it's hard to take this even semi-seriously nowadays - that she's able to quell the voices and correct the manic behavior and go home at the end (to an incredibly tolerant husband) isn't so much 'reality' as Hollywoodized feel-good hokum. Some of this - particularly the racing thoughts and shock treatment - bring to mind Plath's masterpiece The Bell Jar, but we know how Sylvia's story ended in real life....
