The Blue Lamp
THE BLUE LAMPÂ (PG)
D: Basil Dearden
GFD/Ealing (Michael Relph)
UK 🇬🇧 1949
84 mins
Crime/Thriller
W:Â T.E.B. Clarke
DP: Gordon Dines
Ed: Peter Tanner
Mus: Ernest Irving
Jack Warner (PC George Dixon), Jimmy Hanley (PC Andy
Mitchell), Dirk Bogarde (Tom Riley), Meredith Edwards (PC Hughes), Robert Flemyng (Sgt. Roberts), Bernard Lee (Inspector Cherry), Patric Doohan (Spud), Peggy Evans (Diana Lewis)
A
rarity from Ealing Studios; it isn't a comedy. More in the veins of 1947's Brighton Rock, this pacy crime thriller is an ode to the traditional English bobby on the beat, following a new recruit
who is on the hunt for the murderer who kills his senior colleague.  Â
Though the London geographical and political landscape has
changed in the decades since, this is a brilliant throwback to a more nostalgic time with the studio's often heralded message that "crime doesn't pay".
The film provided a huge inspiration to long-running British
TV show, The Dixon Of Dock Green.
6/10
