The Sleeping Tiger (1954)

The Sleeping Tiger is a British thriller film first released in 1954, directed by Joseph Losey.  The film stars Dirk Bogarde, Alexis Smith, Alexander Knox, Hugh Griffith and Patricia McCarron.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


One evening, the eminent psychiatrist Dr Clive Esmond is held up by a young petty crook named Frank Clements.  Esmond manages to disarm his assailant, but rather than hand him over to the police he decides to take him home and subject him to an intense course of therapy.  The psychiatrist is confident that he can cure Clements of his criminal tendencies and transform him into a useful member of society.  Esmond’s wife Glenda is understandably perturbed when she learns that her husband has adopted a dangerous criminal but, over time, she begins to find the aggressive young man strangely attractive.  Despite his benefactor’s best efforts, Clements continues his criminal exploits, whilst embarking on a passionate love affair with his wife...

Blacklisted in Hollywood for alleged involvement with the Communist Party, director Joseph Losey hoped to continue his filmmaking career in England.  At first he had difficulty finding work and rarely was he able to find projects that appealed to him.  For his first British film, The Sleeping Tiger, Losey was not even allowed to be identified as the director – the credit went to Victor Hanbury, an obscure English filmmaker who co-produced the film with Losey for the company Anglo Amalgamated.  Similarly, the authors of the screenplay, Carl Foreman and Harold Buchman, were also McCarthyist exiles who adopted the pseudonym Derek Frye.   The film marks the beginning of Losey’s long and successful association with actor Dirk Bogarde, who would appear in four subsequent Losey films: The Servant (1963), King and Country (1964), Modesty Blaise (1966) and Accident (1967).

Right from the outset Joseph Losey had little regard for the script and was troubled by the apparent weaknesses in the story.  However, he was determined to rise above these concerns (knowing that if he failed his filmmaking career would probably be over) and with the support of his distinguished cinematographer Harry Waxman and talented cast he succeeds in crafting a compelling noir-like drama.   The experience of making this film was not altogether bad for Losey, since he had the opportunity to experiment with technique and form to a greater extent than he had been able to during his time in Hollywood.  The result is a film that is stylistically impressive, marred only by a risible storyline and some weak characterisation.

Those familiar with Losey’s work will recognise the characteristic stylistic and thematic touches which would form an integral component of the baroque style of his later films, such as the endless use of shadows and mirrors to suggest confinement and narcissistic self-delusion.  Despite the mediocre script, the performances hold our attention and render the implausible story just about credible.  In an early dramatic part, Dirk Bogarde performs with a brooding intensity that suggests psychotic menace and tortured vulnerability - streets away from the genial role in the Doctor films which had just made him a household name.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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