The Story of Temple Drake (1933)
Directed by Stephen Roberts

Film Review

William Faulkner's scandalous 1931 novel Sanctuary is given a surprising lurid treatment in this daring but generally lacklustre adaptation by Stephen Roberts.  On its first release, The Story of Temple Drake provoked such criticism, for its overt references to rape and prostitution, that it resulted in the Hays Office tightening Hollywood's censorship rules, severely limiting the portrayal of sex and violence in American cinema for at least two decades.  It wasn't until 1961 that Faulkner's novel was remade, under its original title, with Lee Remick in the role of Temple Drake and Yves Montand as the principal villain.

The Story of Temple Drake may have had a huge impact in its day but, by today's standards, it's a pretty humdrum affair, and feels ludicrously tame compared with what we find in William Faulkner's novel.  The biggest shift from the novel was the change in the ending, which, by allowing the heroine to redeem herself, is far less cynical than the one conceived by Faulkner.  The ensemble of second-rate actors does nothing to mask the woeful inadequacies in the script, and lines such as 'You are a woman, but you are still a Drake' are unlikely to endear an audience to the film.

Patently too old for the part of the main protagonist, Miriam Hopkins fails to engage our sympathies and soon becomes mildly nauseous as her character fails to react convincingly to the horrible things that happen to her (which includes listening to some of the worst scripted dialogue in history).  Jack La Rue's sadistic Trigger is as one-dimensional a villain as you can imagine, a cartoon caricature of a 1930s hoodlum who fails to evoke any real sense of menace and could easily have been replaced with a cardboard cut-out.  On the plus side, the film is atmospherically and stylishly photographed, the expressionistic lighting bringing tension and a stifling oppression to the film's most dramatic scenes.  Were it not for the tedious courtroom scene that concludes the story this might have passed for a fairly respectable film noir.

Film Synopsis

Despite the best efforts of her guardian, a respectable county judge, Temple Drake has grown into a wild and flirtatious young socialite.  Not for her the sanctuary of a cosy marriage with the dull lawyer Stephen Benbow.  She wants to live and prefers the company of such profligate young men as Toddy Gowan.  But one evening she pays the price for her immoral lifestyle.  When Toddy crashes his roadster, Temple ends up in a remote house belonging to a pair of bootleggers, Lee Goodwin and Trigger.  The next morning, Temple is raped by Trigger, who forces her to flee with him after he has shot dead Lee's boy helper Tommy.  Stephen Benbow follows Temple to the city, but she refuses to leave Trigger and return to him.  When Trigger threatens her once more, Temple loses her nerve and shoots him with his own gun.  Back in her home town of Dixon, Temple is faced with a terrible dilemma.  Her testimony could save Lee Goodwin from being hanged for Tommy's killing, but it will cost her her reputation forever...