The career of American born director Joseph Losey ( 109-1984) is a fascinating one. He is the poster boy for the many Hollywood writers and directors who were forced to leave Hollywood because of the 195os blacklisting. After a promising start with movies such as the allegorical THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR (1948) and a remake of Fritz Lang’s M (1951) set in America, Losey fled to England where he began making movies using various pseudonyms. His first was Andrea Forzano for STRANGER ON THE PROWL (1952) followed by this film as Victor Hanbury and finally FINGER OF GUILT (1956) as Joseph Walton. It was SLEEPING TIGER that began his fruitful association with actor Dirk Bogarde.
Up until TIGER, Bogarde had been marketed as a matinee idol and was often cast in lightweight comedies such as the DOCTOR series. This was the first time that he got to play a serious dramatic role with substance and it changed both their careers. They would go on to make 4 more movies together 3 of which (THE SERVANT (1963), KING & COUNTRY (1964), and 1967’s ACCIDENT) are considered modern British classics. TIGER continued the policy of having American stars (though not top drawer ones) appear in British movies as this guaranteed a release in the United States. For this movie Alexis Smith and Alexander Knox were used.
The basic story is a well known one. A rich wife (Smith) with a brilliant but boring husband (Knox) engages in an affair with a younger man (Bogarde). In this instance the older man is a psychiatrist and the young man is his patient with a criminal background. In the beginning, the wife and the patient don’t get along but it doesn’t take too long for that situation to change. The fact that the young man is living in the doctor’s home so that he can study and help him certainly speeds things up. But, as is always the case in these storylines, things do not go as planned and the affair fizzles out but not quite in the way that you might expect which helps to give TIGER a little something extra.
Losey’s movies were known for their innovative use of camerawork and for their solid editing which helps to keep his films moving and makes them interesting to look at. The prime example of this occurs nearly halfway through the movie when Bogarde takes Smith to a Soho jazz club. From the opening shot of a solo trumpeter to the various young couples on the dance floor we not only get the feel of the place and how Smith is a fish out of water but Losey has unintentionally given us a time capsule of 1950s London which was still recovering from World War II. It was my wife’s single favorite scene in the movie and one of my favorites as well.
As the young hood, Bogarde gives a strong riveting performance. You can’t take your eyes off him. Alexis Smith, who never received the recognition in Hollywood she deserved, gives a fine performance as the repressed wife who revels in the attention of the young man and then eventually can’t handle it when he rejects her. Character lead Alexander Knox (another victim of the blacklist), who won an Oscar portraying Woodrow Wison back in 1944, is as dependable as ever as the psychiatrist/husband.who is too busy to see what is going on until it’s too late. He would stay on in England and make a number of films there throughout the 1950s and 60s.
The Capsule Critic 