Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Sleep, My Love Blu-ray Movie Review

You'll never look at hot chocolate the same way again.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 20, 2014

For at least one generation of assimilated Jews who wondered what exactly their Yiddish speaking grandparents were talking about, the name Leo Rosten is synonymous with books like The Joys of Yiddish, which took an often laugh out loud look at a sometimes intrinsically humorous language. It may come as something of a surprise therefore to see Rosten’s name as having provided both the source material as well as the screenplay for the 1948 Gaslight-esque thriller Sleep, My Love. What may come as an even bigger surprise to some film fans is seeing the name of Douglas Sirk as Sleep, My Love’s director. Sirk is of course best remembered today for his overheated fifties dramas like Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows. Sirk actually made much of his forties’ reputation on mysteries and noir like Sleep, My Love, with other potboilers like Lured and Shockproof falling into somewhat the same genre as this particular film. Sleep, My Love will feel somewhat derivative, especially for those who are fans of either the glossy MGM version of Gaslight which starred Charles Boyer and earned Ingrid Bergman her first Academy Award, or the somewhat less luxe 1940 British version starring Diana Wynyard and Anton Walbrook. Some may also find a certain similarity to Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion, though in this case there’s not much suspense as to whether the film’s husband has murderous intent.

Sleep, My Love starts out extremely strongly, with a fantastic (if brief) sequence where Alison Courtland (Claudette Colbert) wakes with a start aboard a train and becomes instantly hysterical, screaming her way down a sleeping car and ultimately having to be restrained by a conductor and a kindly elderly woman. Alison is panicked because she has absolutely no memory of having boarded the train, and in fact her last memory is of going to sleep in her bedroom in the upper east side neighborhood of Sutton Place in New York City.

The film then segues to Sutton Place, where Alison’s concerned husband Richard (Don Ameche) has phoned the police to report his missing wife. Sergeant Strake (a fairly hefty pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr) has arrived on scene and is trying to ferret out what could have happened when Alison, now having arrived in Boston, phones home, only somewhat calmer than she was on the train. She’s discovered she has a gun in her purse, and Strake has already divined that Richard is suffering from a flesh wound on his arm. Richard is nonetheless thrilled to hear from his wife and arranges through Strake for the Boston police to deliver her to the airport, where she can be flown back to La Guardia.

It’s at this point that co-scenarists St. Clair McKelway (how do people get names like that?) and Rosten start to tip their hands, which is admittedly intriguing while also starting to explain things perhaps a bit too early to ever generate much suspense. As Alison leaves the Boston airport, the camera pans to an elderly man who is evidently in league with the elderly woman who had helped Alison on the train, and it’s divulged that the elderly woman’s intervention in Alison’s hysterical episode was no mere coincidence. It turns out that this couple are Charles Vernay (George Coulouris), a down on his luck photographer, and his wife, Grace (Queenie Smith). When they return to Charles’ studio, we meet yet another character, the Vernay’s uppity secretary Daphne (an improbably glamorous Hazel Brooks), who ultimately comes to play a central role in the mystery.

When Alison returns home, Richard lets her know that he’s hired a psychiatrist to help her with what he insists has been a chronic problem. Alison thinks she has the wherewithal to figure out what’s going on herself, but after she realizes she apparently shot at Richard the previous night, she relents. When Vernay shows up the next day pretending to be the psychiatrist, the pieces of the puzzle begin falling into place. It’s obvious there’s a conspiracy against Alison, though why is still at least somewhat in doubt, even if the ultimate players really aren’t. Meanwhile, Alison’s seatmate on her flight home, Bruce Elcott (Robert Cummings), who is a friend of Alison’s chum Barby (Rita Johnson), starts getting suspicious about Alison’s supposed mental instability and begins investigating, bringing a friend of his named Jimmie Lin (Keye Luke) into the snooping.

While there’s nothing too surprising in Sleep, My Lovely, the film is essentially well structured (if a bit too transparent for armchair sleuths) and nicely moody, especially with regard to some of Sirk’s framings and the nicely shaded cinematography of Joseph A. Valentine (an Oscar winner for 1949’s Joan of Arc with Gaslight’s Ingrid Bergman). Sirk utilizes a number of skewed perspectives, especially with regard to the Courtland mansion’s twisting staircase, which palpably add to the film’s atmosphere. (Anyone who has ever been to Sutton Place will probably laugh at the film’s depiction of a detached single family dwelling.)

There’s also a refreshing naturalness to the performances, something that may set this film apart from some of Sirk’s more stylized films. Colbert, while forced to wring her hands and stare catatonically throughout the film, does a nice job essaying a woman trying desperately to understand what’s been happening to her. Ameche makes a surprisingly slimy husband, and Cummings, who often was fairly bland in his screen appearances, is more charming than usual. The supporting cast is wonderful, with Brooks’ Daphne a nice brunette take on the femme fatale, this time with a bit of a snarl accompanying her sultry looks.

Sleep, My Love Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sleep, My Love is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. The elements utilized for this transfer have their fair share of age related damage, including quite a few scratches and white flecks. Generally, though, while sometimes variable, contrast is very strong, nicely offering Valentine's excellent cinematography. While Valentine doesn't truly exploit traditional chiaroscuro, he indulges in several very striking lighting effects that amp up the film's tension and which look quite good here for the most part. There is some variance in contrast, however—note the difference between the bulk of the screenshots and screenshot 9). The image is stable and offers very good clarity and sharpness. Grain is quite evident and natural looking and there are no overt signs of denoising or digital sharpening to cause any concern.

Sleep, My Love Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sleep, My Love's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track sounds quite spry for its age, though with a just slightly brittle sounding upper end that is most noticeable in moments like the opening sequence with the oncoming train and Colbert's shrieks. Otherwise, though, the film's dialogue is very cleanly and clearly presented, with nothing much to complain about other than some very slight hiss which is evident in quieter passages. Rudy Schrager's music sounds fine, if occasionally a bit shallow.

Sleep, My Love Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements of any kind are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Sleep, My Love Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sleep, My Love is a decent rethinking of the basic premise underlying Gaslight, but it's no so patently derivative that it becomes ineffective. Bolstered by some brisk direction by Douglas Sirk, and photographed in some moody ways by Joseph A. Valentine, this saga of a woman surrounded by a conspiracy she doesn't initially recognize or understand boasts an extremely capable cast and a couple of very effective set pieces. Olive's release once again doesn't offer anything in the way of supplements, but its "hands off" approach to digital tinkering of older elements provides a rather nice viewing experience. Recommended.