Published in 1931, William Faulkner's novel Sanctuary was an immediate scandal. It involves a fallen woman whisked away from Faulkner's legendary Yoknapatawpha County to Memphis after her rape by a sinister bootlegger named Popeye. Prior to production, the Hays Office had preemptively declared their objection to any adaptation of Faulkner's grim book. Regardless, Paramount went ahead with their project even after George Raft refused the renamed role of Trigger, a part Jack La Rue would take on with majestic menace. Miriam Hopkins plays Temple Drake, daughter of a small-town judge, who eschews the staid Southern belle in favor of being a tempestuous tease. After a car accident lands her in the middle of a seedy backwoods speakeasy, Temple regrets her wild ways when confronted by a den of lascivious louts who would have their way with her. Temple's knight in rusted armor arrives in the form of Trigger, a ruthless thug with a romantic streak. A decidedly uneasy melodrama with an aftertaste of noir, The Story of Temple Drake accumulates much of its intrigue from the moody cinematography of Karl Struss who balances Depression-era realism with expressionist sleaziness. Between Temple's trollopy teasing and Trigger's soiled stare, even the expurgated result has its sordid excess.