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 policeman George Dixon, Jimmy Hanley, and Dirk Bogarde in an early and defining role. It was the progenitor of the long-running television series Dixon of Dock Green.
The title refers to the blue lamp 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 Thomas Ernest Bennett Clarke. The film is an early example of the "social realism" films that would emerge later in the 1950s, 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.
We follow the daily activities of two London bobbies, veteran George Dixon and rookie Andy Mitchell. Meanwhile, young hoods Tom and Spud plan a series of robberies with Tom's girl Diana, a discontented beauty, as inside worker. But in their second crime, one of our heroes is shot, setting off a citywide manhunt. The killer is clever, but will he outsmart himself? Written by Rod Crawford
