The Story of Temple Drake (1933)

The Story of Temple Drake
Directed by Stephen Roberts
Written by Oliver H.P. Garrett from the novel “Sanctuary” by William Faulkner
1933/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/YouTube

Ruby Lemar: [to Temple Drake] Now you’re satisfied. You got ’em all fightin’ over ya. You nice women. I know your kind. You get a kick out of playin’ with kids. Burnin’ their gas. Eatin’ their food. Spendin’ their money. And whatdya give em? Always got away with it before, ain’t ya? And now you’re scared. ‘Cause these ain’t kids, they’re men. If one of em laid a finger on ya, you’d faint.

Frank treatment of rape and lurid violence label this film pre-Code practically from word go.

Temple Drake (Miriam Hopkins) is the granddaughter of the local judge and has been raised to be a Southern Belle.  Grandad wants her to marry attorney Stephen Benbow (William Gargan).  But Temple is “wild” and has unfulfilled desires that prevent her from committing to one man.  On the night he proposes once again, she goes joyriding with an already drunk boy from her set and he crashes the car.  Miles from home and in a rainstorm, the two proceed to a cabin where the boy swiftly leaves the picture.

The cabin is occupied by some hillbilly types and a bootlegger (Jack La Rue).  All of them eye Temple with great interest.  In the end, it is the bootlegger that attacks her.  He takes her to town where he basically makes her a prisoner.  I won’t reveal much more.  The film ends up as a courtroom drama.

This movie is strong on sexual menace and expressionist lighting.  Sometimes Hopkins grates on me but here she hits all the right notes between terror and outrage.

The film was banned in Pennsylvania and Ohio and heavily censored in New York.  The Breen office ordered that it never be re-released after the Code came into effect in 1934. Seems pretty tame by modern standards, but it’s still strong stuff if you read between the lines.

The film is currently available on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHnI4nGiMek

Clip – Hopkins explains why she can’t marry