The Sleeping Tiger (1954)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Admirable film.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

There is always something unpleasant and morbid about Joseph Losey's films as if they were innately self-destructive, you always sit waiting for the worst, and it always comes, but you never know how, and that's the worst of it.This film is slightly different from his ordinary ones, with above all an impressing camera work slanting towards almost Bergmanesque expressionism, but the dominant trait is the impressing acting by the three main characters, Alexis Smith, always beautiful and stylish, Dirk Bogarde, always slyly intelligent and unpredictable, and Alexander Knox, always on the safe and right side of reason and humanity. He is here a psychologist venturing on the interesting but risky experiment of housing a criminal (Bogarde) instead of turning him over to the police, in an effort to straighten him out. He gets straightened out but at the cost of Alexis Smith, Dr. Knox' wife, who finds her own tiger inside herself. There is more than one tiger getting roused from sleep and every day routine in this psychological thriller of mainly reasoning and experimenting - there is a gun but no bloodshed. The raw music of saxophones constantly insisting on vulgarity adds to the decadent atmosphere of human decay and perdition, like in so many of Losey's films if not all of them, but this is certainly one of his best. The Soho scenes contrast sharply against the orderly clinic and home of Dr. Knox and add some extra suggestive noir perfume to the dark drama of passion that never should have been called forth. Alexis Smith is always excellent, but I have never seen her better than here. It's a film of many raised eyebrows and some worries, but it is brilliantly realized with impressing, convincing psychology and great intelligence all the way.

At the time ,like so many others such as Dalton Trumbo,Joseph Losey used to work under pseudos because of his commie friends."The sleeping tiger" predates permanent features in the director's work:-the intruder ,be it a servant "(eponymous movie) ,a licentious gypsy ("the gypsy and the gentleman" ),some kind of doppelganger ("Monsieur Klein" ,perhaps his masterpiece), a mysterious girl ("secret ceremony"),who makes the place his very own ,physically ("The servant" ) or mentally ('Monsieur Klein" ).Dirk Bogarde is fascinating in his part of a young offender :his acting is so subtle we do not know when the movie ends whether he is a victim or a perverse person,probably both.-the depiction of the decay of a milieu the intruder will destroy : the old aristocracy in "the gypsy and the gentleman" ,the bourgeoisie in "the servant" the world of the war profiteers in " Monsieur Klein" . When Alexis Smith tells her husband's guinea pig that she got a raw deal too when she was a child but she made her way of life just the same ,the guy knows better :"because you think you are happy now?"A shrink wants to study a case of delinquency and wakens the sleeping tiger...which is perhaps not the one you are thinking of.Superlative performances by the three leads.

Actually, this film isn't all bad. 'The Sleeping Tiger' refers to Alexis Smith's bored doctor's wife, who decides to throw herself at the bit of rough from the criminal classes (Dirk Bogarde) who her husband is hoping to rehabilitate. I suppose Bogarde's Frank is a British equivalent to the angry young men of Brando or Dean, but being British he is just a bit too mannered to be convincing.Smith's descent into frustration and anger after being rejected is unconvincing and done too quickly, meaning that the end sequences are rushed and unbelievable. Still, up to that point, the film is not bad. The relationship between Smith, Bogarde, and Smith's husband (Alexander Knox), is played out well and the film manages to be fairly engrossing and somewhat ahead of its time.

after so many years, SLEEPING TIGER is a historical gold mine of the search for innovative film. Acting & music appears intentionally melodramatic. One of the most underappreciated gems available!