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| Released: |
1949 |
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| Genre: |
CRIME
THRILLER
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| Origin: |
GB |
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| Colour: |
BW |
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| Length: |
84 |
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An affronted underworld helps police catch a young murderer (Dirk Bogarde) who has committed the sin of using a firearm. |
Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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| The famous police melodrama which inspired the long-running TV series, Dixon of Dock Green. This may not be the gritty crime thriller that it was considered to be in 1949 - indeed it's rather quaint - but it is a stirring tribute to the old-fashioned British Bobby, with sound leading performances. | | MIXED | | A soundly made crime thriller which would not be creating much of a stir if it were American. | | | | (Richard Mallett, Punch) | | The real hero of the piece... is the police force; and for once we are given an authentic police station; an accurate picture of the work of the man on the beat and the detective. Accuracy, however, can be suffocatingly dull in fiction if it is not illuminated by humanity. With the exception of the murderer's girl, who is shown in a state of constant and, to my mind, implausible hysteria, the characters in the story are admirably observed; the uniformed policemen (Jack Warner and Jimmy Hanley), the criminals (Dirk Bogarde and Patric Doonan), the minor figures who give texture to the background, are warmly drawn and beautifully acted. The Blue Lamp, in short, has both the dramatic tension and the robust ironic humour which have made the reputation of the realistic British cinema. | | | | (Dilys Powell, Sunday Times) | | This film, for all its clever, unobtrusive realism, is not - nor does it try to be - a profound study of the life and work of the police. If is not so much a portrait as an advertising poster, but the remarkable thing is that the poster has been so well designed-and that no one designed it before. | | | | (James Monahan) | | As entertainment the film is fine. T.E.B. Clarke's script is quite outstanding. It is sharply dramatic, well constructed, deeply sentimental and wryly funny. And it has the huge merit that it never gloats over the sadism and violence it must show. It would rather show a copper at supper with his old woman than a gunman strangling his gal. | | | | (Paul Holt) | | It is not only foreigners who find the English policeman wonderful, and, in composing this tribute to him, the Ealing Studios are giving conscious expression to a general sentiment. | | | | (Times) | | ANTI | | The mixture of coyness, patronage and naive theatricality which has vitiated British films for the last ten years. | | | (Gavin Lambert) |
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, Jimmy Hanley 
, Dirk Bogarde 
