Pre-Code Confidential #5: The Story of Temple Drake (1933)

A series of posts where I take a look at some pre-code films that truly turn up the crime, sex, scandal, and sensationalism.

Miriam Hopkins in The Story of Temple Drake (1933)

Imagine a story so scandalous that when Hollywood adapted it, the studio refused to acknowledge any references to the film’s source material. That’s exactly what happened with The Story of Temple Drake (1933), based on William Faulkner’s Sanctuary—a novel so salacious that Faulkner himself admitted to writing it for shock value (and a little extra cash). Temple Drake didn’t just push boundaries—it blew them up.

The result?

A twisted and dramatic Southern Gothic story, artfully filmed by director Stephen Roberts and lit by cinematographer Karl Strauss to evoke all the tension and terror of a horror film, and packed with everything that would soon be forbidden: sexual violence, moral decay, and a magnetic yet deeply unsettling performance by Miriam Hopkins.

A shadow of danger lies in wait for Temple Drake

The Story of Temple Drake follows a high-society southern bell debutante (Hopkins, in one of her most compelling “I’m-in-way-over-my-head” roles) whose reckless flirtations land her in the clutches of Trigger, a sleazy gangster played by Jack La Rue. What follows is a grim descent into abduction, sexual assault, and the wreckage of Temple’s life. The studio may have softened some of the story’s more sordid edges, but let’s be honest—there’s no mistaking what’s really happening here. And that lack of subtly made the film a lightning rod for controversy.