Sleep, My Love

Douglas Sirk's 1948 film is a thriller built on the pattern of making a woman doubt her own mind. Alison finds herself one night on a moving train with no memory of how she got there; when she returns home her husband calms her, calls a doctor and explains what happened as a nervous breakdown. But the viewer understands early that this is a contrivance, and the tension comes from when Alison will see it. As in his later melodramas, Sirk uses domestic space here as a prison, with the stairs, corridors and bedroom carrying the threat. The film is less known than the best remembered examples of its type but does not fall behind them in editing or lighting. Claudette Colbert stars. Who it's for: viewers who like forties thrillers and early Sirk. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a plot built on surprise; the film shows the scheme from the start.