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The Blue Lamp
RRP: £12.99
Our Price: £4.26 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Fifty years on, it's hard to appreciate just how shocking one key scene in The Blue Lamp was considered by British audiences. Young delinquent Tom Riley (played with sensuous malevolence by Dirk Bogarde) guns down kindly, benevolent copper, PC Dixon (Jack Warner.) In early 1950s Britain, murdering a policeman was the ultimate taboo. Even the underworld's denizens help the police flush Riley out. Made by Ealing Studios, The Blue Lamp is not a comedy but shares many of the studio's characteristic comic hallmarks, as well as the same writer (TEB Clarke) for their classics Hue And Cry and The Lavender Hill Mob. Consensus and tolerance are the watchwords. Individualism is frowned upon. There are no extravagant displays of emotion, not even from Mrs Dixon (Gladys Henson) when she learns what happened to her husband. The understatement is very moving, although by today's standards the representation of the police seems absurdly idealised. Were they ever the doughty, patient sorts depicted here? It is no surprise to learn that Scotland Yard co-operated in the making of the film but this is much more than just police propaganda. Well-crafted, full of finely judged character performances, it ranks with Ealing's best work. It was made at an intriguing historical moment: before rock and roll and the era of teenage affluence, there was simply no place for young tearaways like Tom Riley. --Geoffrey Macnab
London As It Was (?)
Review date: 2007-12-27 Rating: 8 out of 10
This film was the acorn from which sprang the oak of Dixon of Dock Green, the longrunning TV series featuring Sergeant Dixon, amiably wise local uniformed policeman, who always started and ended each episode with a homespun homily. My grandmother never missed. In the film, Dirk Bogarde's young gangster shoots dead the then Police Constable Dixon and is pursued relentlessly but with almost amusing gentility by the Metropolitan Police, who, naturally, capture him in the end. The film is skilfully made and the raffish atmosphere of postwar London brilliantly shown. Ground and aerial shots of the main areas used (Little Venice, Maida Vale, Paddington, North Kensington) are of interest not only to the film buff but to social and architectural historians. As an ex-Little Venice resident myself, I was once more amazed to see how much has changed (sometimes for better, sometimes not) in the Regent's Canal area and elsewhere and how much of the redevelopment has been the work of planners and local councils, rather than the Luftwaffe, who (outside the docks and nearby areas of the City and East London) really damaged London, overall, scarcely at all during WW2. Another interesting point is the paucity of traffic in those poor and petrol-rationed days. Dirk Bogarde is able to drive at speed down deserted streets, pursued by the squad and area cars of the police. The main car chase is, in today's terms, "iconic" and, with its near massacre of a school party on a pedestrian crossing, surely must have inspired the almost identical scene in the watchable Sixties film Robbery (based loosely on the Great Train Robbers). The final scenes before Bogarde's capture, in the crowded yet lonely confines of a dog-racing track (White City, I think) are classic, capturing the clammy despair of a criminal like that in those days when a crime like his would lead inevitably to the hangman's rope. A British classic.
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Reviews
Great Movie
Review date: 2007-07-29 Rating: 10 out of 10
This was the movie that changed British gangster films for ever,
Originally written by (Lord) Ted Willis, it introduced us to PC George Dixon, part social worker, part father confessor and part copper.
Dirk Bogarde plays a troubled teenager with a gun (even though when the film was made, Bogarde was already a a decorated war hero!) who kills PC Dixon in an alley.
Jack Warner's character was brought back to life to star in the BBC's long running series "Dixon of Dock Green" which ran from 1955 until 1976.
It's a great movie, a real slice of 1950's post-war Britain.
Buy and enjoy.
English
Review date: 2004-03-17 Rating: 4 out of 10
When Jack Warner appeared in this film, nobody was quite prepared for how much loved he would become. Indeed, despite having been "killed off", he returned to become Dixon of Dock Green, in pretty much the same role.
The story begins by showing crime and how it affects everyone. The sympathetic, compassionate and human police officers, represent an England that we desperately need, today.
Dirk Bogarde, as ever, plays his part brilliantly and it is almost as though this were two films rolled into one; the story of London "Bobbies" (and I do not mean this to be in any way disparaging) on the beat and how they do their best to be human. The truth of the "underground", crimminal factor, of young people, driven into crime for what ever reason.
When Jack is shot, it is one thing; when he dies, it is a tragedy. The supporting cast are honest, believable and convincing. The story is gritty, intelligent, yet it has a certain naivete, that betrays how English it is.
The gentlemanly attitude of the Police, is almost outwitted by the ruthlessness of the crimminals. However, even in those times, the Police weren't as stupid as some would have us believe. They may have been sincere, but they knew what they were doing.
Some interesting views of the west of London; some excellent performances by an excellent cast. Not a film to be watched lightly, but one that will leave the viewer with a thought.
I would recommend this film very highly.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Dirk Bogarde
Bernard Lee
Jack Warner
Jimmy Hanley
Robert Flemyng
Creators:
Jack Warner (Primary Contributor)
Jimmy Hanley (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Optimum Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Optimum Home Entertainment
EAN: 5060034576310
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2006-08-21
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Language: English (Original Language)