There have been two film adaptations of Sanctuary: a seventy-minute 1931 Paramount production entitled The Story of Temple Drake and the ninety-minute 1960 hybrid of Faulkner's Sanctuary and A Requiem for a Nun released by Fox as Sanctuary (both films are in black and white). Eager to cash in on the sensation created by the novel, Paramount bought the motion picture rights in 1932 and released the film a year later with Benbow, Temple, and Popeye played by William Gargan, Miriam Hopkins, and Jack La Rue (in the motion picture Popeye's name was changed to Trigger).

Produced by Benjamin Glazer, written by Oliver H. P. Garrett, and directed by Stephen Roberts, The Story of Temple Drake is a usual Hollywood blend of a gangster story, romance, and a good-over-evil melodrama. In the movie the nobleintentioned Temple loves Benbow but, fearing her own dark impulses, chooses to play around with Toddy Gowan...