The Blue Lamp (1950)

Description

An immensely popular British crime film, Basil Dearden's The Blue Lamp was scripted by ex-policeman T.E.B.Clarke, the writer who arguably did most to define Ealing Studio's post-war identity. The film concentrates on interrelated episodes in the lives of several London policemen. Jack Warner heads the cast as George Dixon, a veteran "bobby" who is murdered by small-time delinquents Dirk Bogarde and Patrick Doonan. Rookie cop Jimmy Hanley, who'd looked upon Warner as a father figure, embarks on a perilous search to bring Dixon's killers to justice. Shot in a pioneering semi-documentary style that focuses on ordinary heroes, the film offers an insightful examination of a new breed of young criminal, hardened by the war years, whose recklessness and violence contrasts with the discipline of the older criminal fraternity. Jack Warner's George Dixon made a remarkable recovery from his untimely death, becoming known to millions of TV viewers as Dixon.