The Story of Temple Drake [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Stephen Roberts, Stephen R. Roberts Stephen Roberts

Overview

"William Faulkner's novel Sanctuary was a notorious bestseller upon its publication in 1931, and while it was successful enough that Paramount Pictures quickly snapped up the film rights, they were forced to change enough of the story to make it fit for the screen (even in the ""pre-code"" era) that by the time it reached theaters the title had been changed to The Story of Temple Drake. Temple (Miriam Hopkins) is a free-spirited girl being raised by a well-respected judge (Guy Standing) after the death of her mother. Temple has a wild streak and a taste for liquor and men she can bend to her will, and while principled lawyer Stephen Benbow (William Gargan) wants to marry her, she's not willing to settle down. While joyriding with Toddy Gowan (William Collier Jr.), a young man with more bravado than sense who wrecks their car, Temple ends up in the decaying home of Lee Goodwin (Irving Pichel), who with leering, sharp suited gangster Trigger (Jack La Rue) makes and sells moonshine. While Lee's life Ruby (Florence Eldridge) and dim-witted helper Tommy (James Eagles) try to protect Temple, cold-hearted Trigger shoots Tommy, rapes Temple and takes her away to the city, where she falls into a relationship with the gangster governed by both attraction and fear. While the most sordid aspects of Sanctuary were excised by screenwriter Oliver H.P. Garrett and director Stephen Roberts, The Story of Temple Drake was still quite controversial on its initial release, and within a few months of its release, Will Hayes and Joseph Breen overhauled the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America's production code and strengthened enforcement of its guidelines on content, making it virtually impossible for a major studio to make a film like it again until the 1960s."

Product Details

Release Date:	12/03/2019
UPC:	0715515238717
Original Release:	1933
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:11:00
Sales rank:	12,025

Special Features

English SDH Subtitles; New program featuring a conversaton between cinematographer John Bailey and Matt Severson, director of the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academey of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, about the film's visual style, as well as archival materials relating to its production; New program featuring critic Imogen Sara Smith on the complexity of the film and its central performance by Miriam Hopkins; New interview with critic Mick LaSalle about the film, censorship, and the production code

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Miriam Hopkins	Temple Drake
Jack La Rue	Trigger
William Gargan	Stephen Benbow
William Collier Jr.	Toddy Gowan
Irving Pichel	Lee Goodwin
Guy Standing	Judge Drake
Elizabeth Patterson	Aunt Jennie
Florence Eldridge	Ruby Lemar
James Eagles	Tommy,Tommy
Harlan Knight	Pap
James Mason	Van
Jobyna Howland	Miss Reba
Henry Hall	Judge
John Carradine	Courtroom Extra
Frank Darien	Gas Station Proprietor
C.L. Sherwood	Lunch Wagon Proprietor
Oscar Apfel	District Attorney
Kent Taylor	Jellybean
Clem Beauchamp	Jellybean
Arthur Belasco	Wharton
Grady Sutton	Bob
George Pearce	Doctor,Doctor
Hattie McDaniel	Minnie
William Collier, Jr.	Toddy Gowan

Technical Credits

Oliver Garrett

Benjamin Glazer	Producer
Stephen Roberts	Director,Director
Oliver Garrett	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

With its reputation as being one of the films most responsible for the creation of the Legion of Decency and the toughening of Hollywood's Production Code, one might expect The Story of Temple Drake to be nothing more than a lurid potboiler of a melodrama. It's a welcome surprise to discover that it's actually an engrossing little drama, even if its melodramatic overtones do get to be a bit on the heavy side in some places. Still, the fact is that Drake's story is more about southern power, class and hypocrisy than it is about sex, and it makes for an effective piece of filmmaking. Although Oliver P. Garrett's screenplay of necessity has to take some liberties with the William Faulkner novel that is its source, it comes across as one of the most successful screen adaptations of a Faulkner work. Things have been toned down a bit, and of necessity shortened, and the ending resolves too quickly, but there's still force and power and heat and drama in what Garrett has written for the screen. Stephen R. Roberts directs well, although with perhaps less "oomph" than one might wish on occasion. But the film's biggest asset is it terrific star performance from Miriam Hopkins. Sexy, sensual, forthright and a force of nature in her own right, Hopkins' Temple lights up the screen. Her bravura performance is a delight from start to finish, and she is the bedrock that makes Drake a film t owatch.