Although credited at the time to Victor Hanbury, The Sleeping Tiger was, in fact, the first British film of Joseph Losey, whose promising Hollywood career had been cut short when he was blacklisted during the McCarthy era.

A psychiatrist Clive Esmond (Alexander Knox) catches young gunman Frank Clements (Dirk Bogarde) breaking into his house. Rather than send him to prison he invites the delinquent to stay at his home as a social guinea pig - Esmond believes he can curb the fugitive's criminal tendencies. Further tensions arise however when the youth begins an affair with Esmond's wife (Alexis Smith).

The hugely popular Dirk Bogarde was persuaded to star after viewing Losey's impressive The Prowler and so precipitated one of British cinema's most important actor/director partnerships. Retrospectively viewed as a dry run for The Servant due to the virtuoso camerawork and the pithy insights into class hypocrisy, this is a brilliantly performed analysis of base human emotions.

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