THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE (1933) presented by Forbidden Hollywood
Schedule
Mon Aug 05 2024 at 07:00 pm
Location
Arkadin Cinema & Bar | Southhampton, MO
Forbidden Hollywood is a monthly series hosted by STL film critic Katie Carter celebrating the Pre-Code films of the early 1930s, when movies were wild, racy, transgressive, and tons of fun.“Deliberately sordid.” A “trashy, sex-plugged piece.” “Revolting” and the “best example of bad taste yet seen.” Those are just a few of the phrases critics in 1933 hurled at “The Story of Temple Drake,” Paramount’s adaptation of William Faulkner’s controversial novel “Sanctuary.” Miriam Hopkins stars as the titular Temple, the coquettish granddaughter of a prominent Mississippi judge. Sex is a game to Temple, until one of her suitors gets drunk and crashes their car outside the dilapidated hideout of a band of ruthless gangsters and bootleggers.
Originally titled “The Shame of Temple Drake,” the story plunges deep into the moral reckoning and redemption of a woman in peril, with scenes so shocking— the centerpiece being a deviation into old dark house horror that revels in grotesque details and hallucinatory imagery— they resulted in the film being shelved for decades after its release, remaining largely unseen until its 2011 restoration. That’s the real shame, because “Temple Drake” is clearly one of the greatest artistic triumphs of the 1930s, from its gothic lighting and doom-laden cinematography by frequent F.W. Murnau collaborator Karl Struss, to Hopkins’ deft handling of her character, to its central rape scene, artfully designed and extensively storyboarded by future noir director Jean Negulesco.