The Story of Temple Drake

It doesn't touch the gruesome power of the novel, mostly because they undersell the beating Gowan takes and Florence Eldridge can't sell the most important role in the film. But! on its own terms, it's an effective and uncommonly intense pre-Code crime drama.

I haven't really heard of this director before. Got a new guy to check out.

It is a fun movie but a little too hokey to be taken seriously.

Very much of its time with some of the overwrought acting needed in the silents to get the message across sans words, BUT the characters give this their all and make clear what it was like for a woman at the time and what it was that TD would forfeit by telling the truth (and what an airhead she was when "safe in her world"). As others have noted Jack La Rue makes an exceptional villian. No nuduty tho there is strong implication of non-consensual hanky panky. This is a good'un, forgive its age.

Melodramatic but groundsbreaking because of the scandalous actions of the lady

If you're reading this. Go and watch this fuckin movie. Jack La Rue's performance is up there with Mitchum in Night of the Hunter. I was stressing out. Beautifully shot. The close ups/shadows omg.

Amazing close ups, that's for sure.

Em honra dos 120 anos de nascimento de Miriam Hopkins, uma das minhas favoritas pessoais. Bem menos chocante do que o livro do Faulkner, também não pega leve para a moral e bons costumes da época. Brilhantemente fotografado por Struss (saca o enquadramento da Temple com as espigas de milho?) e intensamente atuado por Hopkins (interpretando uma histérica tão perfeita a ponto de achar que o diretor, o roteirista ou ela já conheciam Freud). Box OP Cinema Pre Code.

Tanto la película como la obra (Santuario) son polémicas para la época, o incluso ahora. El tema de la violación, el no arrepentimiento y lo antimoral dio mucha controversia. Además, de que es una versión del texto bastante light comparado con lo que escribió Faulkner. Y, también, que fue a partir de esta película que se impuso el Código Hays.

The scandalous motif at the centre of everything is not intriguing enough to carry the suspense. There are visual merits and Hopkins plays her role quite well.

Miriam Hopkins was great in this. The movie lived on her emotions as the young flirt who gets lost in a situation where she meets the adult world straight on. Caught in a place where everyone wants to rape her. And the baddest man of them all is Jack La Rue who really looks nasty. The films weak point for me is the male lead William Gargan who I felt didn't give it the edge needed to make the drama work optimally in the trial. The way the film ended also left too much to be desired.