In his first British film, Losey maps the territory of sexually inflected power games, infidelity and simmering class tension that he would spend the rest of his UK career exploring. Dirk Bogarde debuts with Losey as a young tough whose attempt to mug a psychiatrist (Knox) lands him in the doctor's home as part of a social experiment in rehabilitation over punishment, a test that is complicated, inevitably, by the interests of his benefactor's wife (Smith). A fiercely energetic film that far transcends its limited budget and formulaic story, The Sleeping Tiger channeled the resourcefulness of form and performance that Losey learned on the stage and in the Hollywood studios.

An injured thief – dressed in drag – is forced to take refuge in a remote cabin inhabited by a blind poet in this oddity directed by Losey for Hammer Studios. Although Losey viewed A Man on the Beach primarily as a continuation of the experimentation with color begun in The Boy With Green Hair, this early British assignment also continues his exploration of crime, sexual deviancy and mercurial power relationships.