She lives with her step-uncle, Jason, who has practically raised Quentin ever since her promiscuous mother, Caddy, abandoned her.

Jason makes ends meet working in the store of Earl Snopes, a man he detests.

[3] In August 1956 Wald announced he had purchased the screen rights and would make it for 20th Century Fox, and that the team of Harriet Frank and Irvin Ravitch would do the adaptation.

[4] Wald offered the leading roles of Jason and Candace to Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.

[7] Quintero turned down the film, By May 1957 Martin Ritt was signed to direct and Wald was going to make another Faulkner tale as well, The Hamlet, which became The Long Hot Summer.

[13][14] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that the film "lacks texture" and is "sentiment-dappled and synthetic".

[15] The negative reception may also have been partly due to Joanne Woodward's being so much older than the character she played; at almost 30 years old, it was hard to find her believable as a 17-year-old girl.