The Story of Temple Drake *** (1933, Miriam Hopkins, Jack La Rue) – Classic Movie Review 11,927

Director Stephen Roberts’s 1933 controversial American pre-Code drama film The Story of Temple Drake stars Miriam Hopkins as the titular character.

The Catholic League of Decency set off a successful censorship campaign on Hollywood after Paramount Pictures filmed William Faulkner’s novel Sanctuary. The film was considered so indecent that it helped to give rise to the strict enforcement of the Hays Code. The furore overshadowed the film’s quality.

Hopkins greatly impresses as Temple Drake, the reckless socialite who goes out to have fun, but is raped and kidnapped, then enjoys her degraded life in the American South. Paramount bit player Jack La Rue replaced George Raft as the male lead of the brutal gangster and rapist Trigger, as Raft called the role ‘screen suicide’ since the character had no redeeming qualities. Raft was suspended by Paramount.

The hot script (slightly modified from the 1931 novel, with some controversial elements left out, and some censored in several cuts made by the Hays Office) is as effective as Roberts’s direction.

The Story of Temple Drake is faded but fascinating and it is still a better film than Fox’s 1961 explicit remake under its original title Sanctuary, with Lee Remick.

It was restored by the US Museum of Modern Art and shown again in 2011 at the TCM Classic Film Festival. The Criterion Collection released it for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray in December 2019.

The Story of Temple Drake stars Miriam Hopkins.

The cast are Miriam Hopkins as Temple Drake, Jack La Rue as Trigger, William Gargan as Stephen Benbow, William Collier Jr as Toddy Gowan, Irving Pichel as Lee Goodwin, Jobyna Howland as Miss Reba, Guy Standing as Judge Drake, Elizabeth Patterson as Aunt Jennie, Florence Eldridge as Ruby Lemarr, James Eagles as Tommy, Harlan Knight as Pap, Jim Mason [James Pier Mason] as Van, Louise Beavers as Minnie, Arthur Belasco as Wharton, Jobyna Howland, Oscar Apfel, Clem Beauchamp, John Carradine, Frank Darien, Henry Hall, George C Pearce, C L Sherwood, Grady Sutton and Kent Taylor.

Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972) is best known for Trouble in Paradise, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Story of Temple Drake, Becky Sharp, These Three, The Richest Girl in the World, Barbary Coast, The Old Maid (1939) and Old Acquaintance.

Hopkins herself cited the Temple Drake role as one of her favourites because of its emotional complexity: ‘That Temple Drake, now, there was a thing. Just give me a nice un-standardised wretch like Temple three times a year! Give me the complex ladies, and I’ll interpret the daylights out of them.’

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,927

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