The Sleeping Tiger (1954)

Interesting facts

The Sleeping Tiger is a 1954 British film noir directed by Joseph Losey, from a screenplay by Harold Buchman and Carl Foreman, and starring Alexis Smith, Dirk Bogarde and Alexander Knox. It was Losey's first British feature, which he directed under the fronting of producer Victor Hanbury, due to being blacklisted in the McCarthy Era. The film is about a petty thief (Bogarde) who agrees to be the test subject of an affluent psychiatrist (Knox), but the doctor's wife (Smith) becomes infatuated with him.

Production

Due to his alleged ties with the US Communist Party, the blacklisted Joseph Losey moved to London and began work on The Sleeping Tiger, his first British feature film. Despite being in England, he faced more problems. The British director Victor Hanbury, who had not directed a film since Hotel Reserve in 1944, allowed Losey to use Hanbury's name as an alias. Hanbury's actual role was limited to producing.

Alexis Smith and Alexander Knox, both successful Hollywood stars, were fearful of how appearing in Losey's film would affect their Hollywood careers. While Smith's career was largely unaffected, Knox chose to settle in Great Britain permanently shortly thereafter, and became one of Losey's regular collaborators.

The Sleeping Tiger was also the beginning of Losey's partnership with Dirk Bogarde, whom he later directed in The Servant, King & Country, Modesty Blaise and Accident, and with editor Reginald Mills who edited The Servant and King & Country.

The film was shot at Walton Studios and on location in London. The sets were designed by the art director John Stoll.

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