The Blue Lamp (Basil Dearden, 1950)

• 29 Jan 14:35
• •
• 4 lists

The Blue Lamp is a British crime film released in early 1950 by Ealing Studios, directed by Basil Dearden and produced by Michael Balcon. It stars Jack Warner as police constable George Dixon, Jimmy Hanley and Dirk Bogarde in an early role. It was the progenitor of the long-running television series Dixon of Dock Green (even though Dixon's murder is the central plot of the original film).

The title refers to the blue lamps that traditionally hung outside British police stations (and often still do). George Dixon is named after producer Michael Balcon's former school in Birmingham.

The screenplay was written by ex-policeman T. E. B. Clarke. The film is an early example of the "social realism" films that would emerge later in the 1950s and 1960s, but it follows a simple moral structure in which the police are the honest guardians of a decent society, battling the disorganised crime of a few unruly youths. The film was the subject of a scathing attack in Sight & Sound , where its editor Gavin Lambert attacked its "specious brand of mediocrity" and suggested the film was "boring and parochial."

The action takes place in the area of London known as Paddington Green and is set in July...

Read more...