The Blue Lamp
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The Blue Lamp is a British crime film released in early 1950 by Ealing Studios. Directed by Basil Dearden and starring Jack Warner, Jimmy Hanley and an early and defining role for Dirk Bogarde. It was the progenitor of the long-running television series Dixon of Dock Green.
The title of the film refers to the blue lamp which traditionally hung outside British police stations.
The story, written by veteran T.E.B. Clarke (an ex-policeman), is on the cusp of the change to the "social realism" films that would emerge in that decade, but still holds close to a simple moral structure. The police are the honest guardians of a decent society, controlling the disorganized crime of a few unruly youths.
The action takes place in the fictional area of London known as Paddington Green, and is set just a few years after the end of World War Two. Police Constable George Dixon (Warner) a long-serving "copper" who is due to retire shortly, takes a new recruit, Andy Mitchell (Hanley), under his aegis, introducing him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic Ealing 'ordinary' hero. but also achronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of Tom Riley (Bogarde). Called to the scene of a robbery at a theatre, Dixon finds himself face-to-face with Riley, a desperate youth armed with a gun. Dixon initially tries to talk Riley into surrendering the weapon, but Riley panics and fires. Dixon walks to his own death almost uncomprehending.
Dixon is taken to hospital, but dies some hours later. The ending is another Ealing quirk, with ordinary decent society, including 'professional' criminals used to violence, banding together to track down and catch the murderer, who is trapped in the crowd at a greyhound track. To Andy Mitchell falls the honor of arresting Riley.
Several of the characters and actors were carried over into the series Dixon of Dock Green.