The Blue Lamp (1950)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Basil Dearden

Writers:

T.E.B. Clarke (screenplay)
Jan Read (original treatment) ...

Release Date:

1 June 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

The unending battle of the city streets

Plot:

The daily routine of two London policemen is interrupted by a killer.

Plot Keywords:

Sergeant | Ealing

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Jack Warner	...	PC George Dixon
Jimmy Hanley	...	PC Andy Mitchell
Dirk Bogarde	...	Tom Riley
Robert Flemyng	...	Sgt. Roberts
Bernard Lee	...	Insp. Cherry
Peggy Evans	...	Diana Lewis
Patric Doonan	...	Spud
Bruce Seton	...	PC Campbell
Meredith Edwards	...	PC Hughes
Clive Morton	...	Sgt. Brooks
Frederick Piper	...	Alf Lewis
Dora Bryan	...	Maisie
Gladys Henson	...	Mrs Dixon
Tessie O'Shea	...	Herself

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

UK:PG | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #13840) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Ealing Studios, Ealing, London, England, UK

Company:

Ealing Studios

Trivia:

The first fictional film to be made with the co-operation of London's Metropolitan Police.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When car 5-D makes a turn at supposed high speed, just after PC Mitchell says "There they are", a woman and two children on the pavement at the left are also walking slightly faster than usual.

Quotes:

Diana Lewis: What d'ye think I am? Soft or something?
Spud: Yeah.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Black and Blue Lamp (1988) (TV)

Scotland Yard hunts down cop-killers

Seminal UK crime film from the 1950's that made a matinee idol of Dirk Bogarde as the young crook. The film served as useful propaganda for the police to show how far crime fighting and criminology had come since before the second world war.

The full resources of the metropolitan police are brought to bear in the search for two young crooks who murder a police officer during a robbery at a cinema. Incidentally, Jack Warner's character, George Dixon (the policeman who is murdered in the film) was resurrected years later, as the central character in the BBC television series 'Dixon of Dock Green'.