I giovani uccidono

London just post-war was still a Victorian city. As the police cars chase the villains along mainly traffic-free roads there is a strange void in the sky - the council estates with their tower blocks are ten years or so in the future. I'd like a closer look at Gladys Henson's kitchen. She's got rid of the old range and cooks on a gas stove in the scullery, but still has a mantelpiece stuffed with nicknacks. Her scenes at home are so touching. At first she can't bear the thought of a lodger in "Bert's old room", but she quickly comes round to Jimmy Hanley as a guest. Another sign that we are in a vanished world: everybody is so THIN! Rationing was still going in 1950.

"The Blue Lamp" is a British film told in semidocumentary style about the rise of youth crime in Britain after World War II. It follows a seasoned policeman, Dixon (Jack Warner) and a rookie (Jimmy Hanley) and two young thieves, played by Dirk Bogarde and Patric Doonan. When Dixon is shot while trying to stop a robbery, the police search for the perpetrators. The film shows their painstaking grunt work and questioning, and also how the case dovetails another one, the disappearance of a young woman, Diana Lewis (Peggy Evans, quite possibly one of the worst actresses ever to hit movies).

This was the film that made 28-year-old Dirk Bogarde a star - he plays the cold, desperate and volatile Tom Riley with the great intensity that was to set him apart from other actors. There was no one quite like him in film - movie star handsome and emotionally complex, with what can best be described as a glint of madness in his eyes. He could play just about anything and did. Not satisfied with matinée idol status, he took the lead in the controversial film Victim in 1961 and wrote after its release: "Overnight, the 4000 maniacs who were writing to me stopped." That was fine with him! Very good movie, with excellent performances all around, with the exception of the hysterical, annoying performance by Evans. Jack Warner does a wonderful job as kindly, experienced P.C. Dixon - so wonderful, in fact, that he continued to play the role after the film in a television series.

This is sort of the "Naked City" of London. Very good.

THE BLUE LAMP is a very famous and popular British film , so popular that it paved the way for an equally famous TV show called DIXON OF DOCK GREEN but it's also a film that hasn't stood the test of time , in fact it's so dated it was satarized in an excellent post modernist teleplay called THE BLACK AND BLUE LAMP in 1988 and after recently seeing this movie I realise that it's a very easy target

First of all is the portrayal of the police . Policemen in the 1950s spent their time taking home lost children , looking for dogs that had run away from their owners and practicing their baritone in the station choir ! Good job the crime rate was so low back then because - just like today - they'd never be able to catch criminals . At least watching THE BLUE LAMP you realise why the cops would never be able to catch crims because they seem to smoke over 100 cigarettes a day , no seriously they do and it's pointed out that PC Mitchell doesn't smoke and that's probably why he's able to sprint after Riley at the end with all the other cops at the station destined to die from lung cancer due to the amount of ciggies they smoke . If you've just given up the weed it's a bad idea to watch this movie

As in so many other movies from this period the " adolescent " characters are played by actors far too old for the roles . Diana Lewis is quoted as being 17 years old on screen but Peggy Evans who plays her is in fact 25 years old and she looks it , and while the ages of Riley and Spud are never mentioned it's inferred they're not older than 21 , but Patric Doonan and Dirk Bogarde are both in their late 20's while the " twenty five year old Pc Mitchell " is played by Jimmy Hanley who was in his early 30s . It's strange but people in those days all look considerably older than the real ages

To give the film its due the climax where Riley finds himself at the stadium being hunted is rather exciting , and " exciting " is not something British films of that era were renowned for . Some people may criticise the idea of dodgy characters going out of their way to help the police but this is logical since the police may return the favour at a later date in not asking too many questions about things falling off the back of lorries .

All in all THE BLUE LAMP is a strange film when watched today . It's certainly not a film for cynics and comes across as being very mawkish and sentimental with almost a fairy tale like air . But it should be remembered that in those days a person being murdered during a crime would make national news headlines while a policeman killed in the line of duty would lead to several days national mourning , and of course in those days the police were - If not popular - certainly far more respected than policeman today could ever hope to be so you have to view this film in the context of when it was made . Ironically enough it's also the first movie to use the word " bastard "

One of the few British efforts to make the kind of 'gritty city' movies that the Americans did so well (Ritt, Cassavates, Kazan). Tibby Clarke wrote this before his (imho) finest work - 'The Lavender Hill Mob' & the climactic chase sequence of TLHM has its more sober counterpart here. This particular chase sequence would definitely rate as one of the best for the '50s. The social commentary in the beginning about old crime vs new crime (old money/ new money) jars the more politically correct '00 ears, but it definitely adds to the charm.

The most interesting performance is definitely the hugely talented Dirk Bogarde's. As the psychotic thief/ killer he sends a shiver down your spine even today. The pathetic slouch with the cold, cruel eyes stands as far apart as possible from the staid & begonia-sprouting policemen of the New Scotland Yard. And the sound of passing trains that overlaps his fits of rage? Brings back (unwelcome) memories of Jean Gabin in 'La Bete Humaine' - hv I spelt that right?

When the Blue Lamp was released i was around 3 years old.I therefore do remember the London that it shows.To me the film is more interesting in what it reveals about the London of 1950 than the actual story.It shows the Metropolitan Music hall in the Edgware Road.It was in the last few years of its life before the A4 cutting a swathe into London meant that it was demolished for "progress".Music Hall by this time was in its last throes and what was left would be rendered extinct by the arrival of ITV.We see the Colloseium in Harlesden.Every High Street had cinemas like this.If you look carefully you will see that they were showing "Granny Get Your Gun" a 1940 "B" feature with May Robson.So it was probably a second run house.There are the bomb sites.I remember that in certain parts of London,particularly the East End there mere were more such sites than actual buildings.The streets do not have a great deal of traffic as there was little traffic at that time.So a film of some sociological interest