Tonight I watched a pre-code shocker entitled "The Story of Temple Drake"(1933), starring Miriam Hopkins in the title role. Temple is the daughter of a judge in the town of Dixon, located somewhere down South. She's a wild child, and man crazy, but has retained enough of her conservative upbringing to know how to say no. In other words, she's a tease. Still, all the guys in town want to date her and she loves the attention, often staying out until four in the morning, much to the chagrin of her father, who wants her to settle down and marry a young lawyer friend of his. Temple rejects this, telling her Dad she finds the man "too serious". Mostly what she wants is to party. Her real best friend (and favorite date) is a non-threatening alcoholic named Toddy Gowan (William Collier Jr.), who has a fast sports car and is always up for a good time.
One night, Temple and Toddy are out driving, in search of a party or speakeasy, anywhere they can get a drink, though both of them have already consumed plenty. As a side note, the movie was made in the year Prohibition was repealed, so it's not made clear whether or not "dry laws" were still in effect. Nevertheless, the partying pair are rarely short of booze, except on this this one night when they hit the road.
They are cruising out in the countryside (which appears to be somewhere near Topanga Canyon), and Toddy swerves off onto a dirt road, intending to take a shortcut. The photography in this scene is very advanced for 1933, giving a driver's eye view of his recklessness. We see the speedometer jump up to 60 as rows of trees rush by on either side, then suddenly the car veers off the track and crashes, as you knew it was gonna do, because Toddy is driving drunk.
Both he and Temple Drake are relatively unhurt, which is a small miracle, but their luck runs out right there on the spot, for a hoodlum is immediately on the scene. This is a short film (71 minutes, which we love) and so things have to happen fast. There's no explanation for why a shiny suited gangster would be out wandering the woods late at night, and come upon the scene of the accident moments after it occurs, but at any rate he's out there. He's wearing a black three piece suit, and he's got a teenaged kid with him who appears to be a country bumpkin. The kid in fact seems mentally retarded as they used to put it, though it's clear he isn't stupid. The gangster allows the kid to carry a rifle, and orders him to take the accident victims back to his hideout, a dilapidated old Southern mansion situated deep in the woods.
By now, Miriam Hopkins is sobering up in a hurry, because this is unknown territory for her. She is used to high society and situations she can control. Out here, she is being led into the middle of nowhere by a backwoodser who looks straight out of "Deliverance". He seems kind, as opposed to his gangster manager, but he will take her into a situation, inside the house, that is only a few steps removed from Texas Chainsaw territory. Suddenly, the racy and sexually confident Temple is at the mercy of a gang of redneck bootleggers, who may be inbred on top of it all. Three of them are big men, all drunk, who set their sights on Temple as soon as she's brought in. The retarded boy tries to protect her, as does the only woman on scene (Florence Eldridge in a picture-stealing role). She is a hard bitten and bitter moll to the head bootlegger (Irving Pichel), who in turn is controlled by the mysterious gangster (Jack LaRue).
This is extremely rough stuff for 1933, far beyond what we've seen even in the most daring of pre-code movies we've viewed to date. The rednecks will remove Toddy from the premises. His fate will be unknown, but more importantly this will leave Temple all alone in the custody of the rednecks and their gangster boss, who will eventually claim Temple for himself. I don't want to give too much away here, but let's say there will be a question of whether or not Temple has become affected by what later came to be called "Stockholm Syndrome, where a kidnap victim comes to empathise with his or her captors. This is what Patty Heart was accused of when she helped the SLA rob a bank.
What happens in the movie is that the gangster commits a crime for which Irving Pichel (the head redneck) is blamed. This leads to Pichel's arrest and trial, at which his lawyer will be, in a scriptwriter's twist, the young lawyer who wanted to marry Temple. Now Temple is in the fix of her life, because she knows the truth about the crime, which Pichel did not commit. But to reveal this truth, if she is called to testify, could cause her entire world to come crashing down, for she too is secretly implicated in something that I cannot reveal.
In fact, I really shouldn't tell you any more about the plot. It's a real potboiler, that's for sure, a Southern Gothic Sinfest adapted from a story by William Faulkner. Early actress Hopkins is exceptional as Temple. Hopkins was adventurous in her roles and showed real emotion onscreen at a time when most acting was affected or stylised due to proximity to the Silent era, when gestures spoke instead of dialogue. Miriam Hopkins hit the ground running in the sound era, and was very popular in the pre-code early 1930s. It is rumored that Bette Davis was jealous of her, and that it developed into a long standing feud between the two. Whatever the case, Miss Hopkins is fantastic as always, but as noted earlier, I think it is Florence Eldridge, as Irving Pichel's "wench", who steals the movie. Eldrige was an accomplished stage actress who was married for almost 50 years to the great Fredric March. Now there's a legendary duo for you.
The Criterion restoration on "The Story of Temple Drake" is one of the best I've seen. They must have had an excellent print or negative to work from, because the picture and sound are both pristine, as if you were watching the movie on opening night in 1933. I give it Two Huge Thumbs Up. It's a must see for pre-code fans, and is thus highly recommended. ////
That's all for now. It's Monday afternoon and I'm at home. Gonna head up to Aliso in a few minutes. I'll see you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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