The Innocent Sleep *** (1996, Rupert Graves, Michael Gambon, Annabella Sciorra, Franco Nero, Oliver Cotton, Graham Crowden, John Hannah) – Classic Movie Review 2478

Director Scott Michell’s 1996 British thriller stars Rupert Graves who plays a real-life English north-country tramp called Alan Terry living homeless outside beside London’s Tower Bridge.

One night he witnesses a killing, a mob execution. But, when he reports it, the police detective inspector on the case Matheson (Michael Gambon) turns out to be one of the murderers, in cahoots with the mob boss Adolfo Cavani (Franco Nero).

The mob come looking for him among the homeless, and his best friend is killed by arson. Matheson is after Terry too, planning to kill him, but a female reporter (Annabella Sciorra) tries to help him.

Graves and Gambon give good accounts of themselves in this tense, entertaining, atmospheric, low-budget version of the real-life Roberto Calvi affair of 1981. Though fictionalised to an unnecessary extent, Ray Villis’s script is crisp and credible.

Also in the cast are Oliver Cotton, Tony Bluto, Paul Brightwell, Campbell Morrison, Graham Crowden, John Hannah and Hilary Crowson.

Michell didn’t direct another film till Scar Tissue in 2013.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2478

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