The Blue Lamp
Encyclopedia
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 police constable George Dixon, Jimmy Hanley
and Dirk Bogarde
in an early role. It was the progenitor of the long-running television series Dixon of Dock Green
(even though Dixon's murder is the central plot of the original film).
The title refers to the blue lamps that traditionally hung outside British police station
s (and often still do). George Dixon is named after producer Michael Balcon's former school in Birmingham
.
The screenplay
was written by ex-policeman T. E. B. Clarke
. The film is an early example of the "social realism
" films that would emerge later in the 1950s and 1960s, 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. The film was the subject of a scathing attack in Sight & Sound
, where its editor Gavin Lambert
attacked its "specious brand of mediocrity" and suggested the film was "boring and parochial."
and is set in July 1949, just a few years after the end of World War II. P.C. George Dixon (Warner) a long-serving traditional "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 anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of Tom Riley (Bogarde). Called to the scene of a robbery at a local cinema, Dixon finds himself face-to-face with Riley, a desperate youth armed with a revolver
. 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 White City
greyhound track
in west London. To Andy Mitchell falls the honour of arresting Riley.
and the crew were thus able to use the real-life former Paddington Green Police Station, then at 64 Harrow Road, London W9 and New Scotland Yard for location work. Most of the other outdoor scenes were filmed in inner west London, principally the Harrow Road precincts between Paddington and Westbourne Park
.
flyover.
The Metropolitan Theatre of Varieties, featured prominently at the start of the film, was demolished because it was thought likely that the Marylebone flyover
would need the site, although that turned out not to be the case. It is now the site of Paddington Green Police Station. The scene involving a robbery on a jeweller's shop was filmed at the nearby branch of national chain, F. Hinds
(then at 290 Edgware Road). This was also knocked down when the flyover was built.
The scenes of the cinema robbery were filmed at the Coliseum Cinema on Harrow Road, next to the Grand Union Canal
bridge. The cinema was probably built in 1922, was closed in 1956 and later demolished. The site is now occupied by an office of Paddington Churches Housing Association
.
Some of the streets used, or seen, in the film include: Harrow Road
W2 and W9, Bishop's Bridge Road W2, Westbourne Terrace Bridge Road W9, Delamere Terrace, Blomfield Road, Formosa Street, Lord Hill's Road, Kinnaird Street and Senior Street W2, Ladbroke Grove
W10, Portobello Road
W11, Latimer Road, Sterne Street W12 and Hythe Road NW10. The church which features prominently towards the end is St Mary Magdelene Church, Senior Street W2. All of the streets around the church were demolished in the early 1960s to make way for the new Warwick Estate in Little Venice. Tom Riley's home was in the run-down street of Amberley Mews, north of the canal, and is now the site of Ellwood Court, part of the Amberley Estate. It is from this mews that Riley walks into Formosa Street, then crosses the Halfpenny Bridge. He then goes into Diana Lewis's flat on the corner of Delamere Terrace and Lord Hill's Road where he attacks her and is chased out by the following detective. Then follows one of the first extended car chases in British film. The route of the chase is as follows: Senior Street W2, Clarendon Crescent W2, Harrow Road W9, Ladbroke Grove W10, Portobello Road W11, Ladbroke Grove W10, Royal Crescent W10, Portland Road W10, Penzance Place W10, Freston Road W10, Hythe Road NW10, Sterne Street W12 - then a chase on foot into Wood Lane and then to White City Stadium
. Most of the chase is a logical following of Riley's car apart from when the car goes from Hythe Road NW10 into Sterne Street - Hythe Road in 1949 was a dead end.
for twenty-one years from 1955 to 1976, with Warner being over eighty by the time of its conclusion.
In 1988, Arthur Ellis's satirical
BBC Two
play The Black and Blue Lamp had the film characters of Riley (Sean Chapman
) PC "Taffy" Hughes (Karl Johnson
) transported forwards in time
into an episode of The Filth, a gritty contemporary police television series, replacing their modern day counterparts.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
by Alan Moore
and Kevin O'Neill
has one panel suggesting George Dixon died in August 1898, the time-period given for the first two graphic novels, as well as The War of the Worlds
. However, no explanation of this claim is given.
In 2010, the BBC Television drama Ashes to Ashes
concluded with a short clip of George Dixon, referring to the similarity to Dixon's death in The Blue Lamp and subsequent 'resurrection' for the television series and the underlying plot of the show.
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
released in early 1950 by Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...
, directed by Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden was an English film director.-Life and career:Dearden was born at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. He graduated from theatre direction to film, working as an assistant to Basil Dean...
and produced by Michael Balcon
Michael Balcon
Sir Michael Elias Balcon was an English film producer, known for his work with Ealing Studios.-Background:...
. It stars Jack Warner
Jack Warner (actor)
Jack Warner OBE was an English film and television actor. He is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon, which he played until the age of eighty....
as police constable George Dixon, Jimmy Hanley
Jimmy Hanley
Jimmy Hanley was a British actor.Born in Norwich, Norfolk, Hanley began his career as a child actor before becoming popular in juvenile roles...
and Dirk Bogarde
Dirk Bogarde
Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol in such films as Doctor in the House and other Rank Organisation pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death in Venice...
in an early role. It was the progenitor of the long-running television series Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...
(even though Dixon's murder is the central plot of the original film).
The title refers to the blue lamps that traditionally hung outside British police station
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...
s (and often still do). George Dixon is named after producer Michael Balcon's former school in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
.
The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was written by ex-policeman T. E. B. Clarke
T. E. B. Clarke
Thomas Ernest Bennett "Tibby" Clarke was a movie scriptwriter who wrote several of the Ealing Studios comedies. His scripts always feature careful logical development from a slightly absurd premise to a farcical conclusion...
. The film is an early example of the "social realism
Social realism
Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic...
" films that would emerge later in the 1950s and 1960s, but it follows a simple moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
structure in which the police are the honest guardians of a decent society, battling the disorganised crime of a few unruly youths. The film was the subject of a scathing attack in Sight & Sound
Sight & Sound
Sight & Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute .Sight & Sound was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the nascent BFI, which still publishes the magazine today...
, where its editor Gavin Lambert
Gavin Lambert
Gavin Lambert was a British-born screenwriter, novelist and biographer who lived for part of his life in Hollywood...
attacked its "specious brand of mediocrity" and suggested the film was "boring and parochial."
Plot
The action takes place in the area of London known as Paddington GreenPaddington
Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...
and is set in July 1949, just a few years after the end of World War II. P.C. George Dixon (Warner) a long-serving traditional "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
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...
'ordinary' hero, but also anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of Tom Riley (Bogarde). Called to the scene of a robbery at a local cinema, Dixon finds himself face-to-face with Riley, a desperate youth armed with a revolver
Revolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...
. 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 White City
White City Stadium
White City Stadium was built in White City, London, for the 1908 Summer Olympics, often seen as the precursor to the modern seater stadium and noted for hosting the finish of the first modern distance marathon. It also hosted speedway and a match at the 1966 World Cup, before the stadium was...
greyhound track
Greyhound racing
Greyhound racing is the sport of racing greyhounds. The dogs chase a lure on a track until they arrive at the finish line. The one that arrives first is the winner....
in west London. To Andy Mitchell falls the honour of arresting Riley.
Production
The production had the full co-operation of the Metropolitan PoliceMetropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
and the crew were thus able to use the real-life former Paddington Green Police Station, then at 64 Harrow Road, London W9 and New Scotland Yard for location work. Most of the other outdoor scenes were filmed in inner west London, principally the Harrow Road precincts between Paddington and Westbourne Park
Westbourne Green
Westbourne Green is an area of London on the western edge of the City of Westminster.-Transport and locale:Nearby places*Paddington*Notting Hill*Bayswater*Warwick Avenue...
.
Locations used
The original blue lamp was transferred to the new Paddington Green Police Station. It is still outside the front of the station and was restored in the early 21st century. Most of the locations around the police station are unrecognisable now due to building of the MaryleboneMarylebone
Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....
flyover.
The Metropolitan Theatre of Varieties, featured prominently at the start of the film, was demolished because it was thought likely that the Marylebone flyover
Overpass
An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...
would need the site, although that turned out not to be the case. It is now the site of Paddington Green Police Station. The scene involving a robbery on a jeweller's shop was filmed at the nearby branch of national chain, F. Hinds
F. Hinds
F. Hinds is a jewellery retailing chain, operating in England and Wales. There are currently 110 F Hinds stores within the United Kingdom.The chain is an independent retailer which was founded in 1856 by George Henry Hinds, although his father Joseph was also a clockmaker in Stamford,...
(then at 290 Edgware Road). This was also knocked down when the flyover was built.
The scenes of the cinema robbery were filmed at the Coliseum Cinema on Harrow Road, next to the Grand Union Canal
Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. Its main line connects London and Birmingham, stretching for 137 miles with 166 locks...
bridge. The cinema was probably built in 1922, was closed in 1956 and later demolished. The site is now occupied by an office of Paddington Churches Housing Association
Housing association
Housing associations in the United Kingdom are independent not-for-profit bodies that provide low-cost "social housing" for people in housing need. Any trading surplus is used to maintain existing homes and to help finance new ones...
.
Some of the streets used, or seen, in the film include: Harrow Road
Harrow Road
The Harrow Road is an ancient route in Greater London which runs from Paddington in a northwesterly direction to Harrow. With minor deviations in the 19th and 20th centuries, the route remains otherwise unaltered...
W2 and W9, Bishop's Bridge Road W2, Westbourne Terrace Bridge Road W9, Delamere Terrace, Blomfield Road, Formosa Street, Lord Hill's Road, Kinnaird Street and Senior Street W2, Ladbroke Grove
Ladbroke Grove
Ladbroke Grove is a road in west London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is also sometimes the name given informally to the immediate area surrounding the road. Running from Notting Hill in the south to Kensal Green in the north, it is located in North Kensington and straddles...
W10, Portobello Road
Portobello Road
Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London, England. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from south to north, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is home to Portobello Road Market, one of London's...
W11, Latimer Road, Sterne Street W12 and Hythe Road NW10. The church which features prominently towards the end is St Mary Magdelene Church, Senior Street W2. All of the streets around the church were demolished in the early 1960s to make way for the new Warwick Estate in Little Venice. Tom Riley's home was in the run-down street of Amberley Mews, north of the canal, and is now the site of Ellwood Court, part of the Amberley Estate. It is from this mews that Riley walks into Formosa Street, then crosses the Halfpenny Bridge. He then goes into Diana Lewis's flat on the corner of Delamere Terrace and Lord Hill's Road where he attacks her and is chased out by the following detective. Then follows one of the first extended car chases in British film. The route of the chase is as follows: Senior Street W2, Clarendon Crescent W2, Harrow Road W9, Ladbroke Grove W10, Portobello Road W11, Ladbroke Grove W10, Royal Crescent W10, Portland Road W10, Penzance Place W10, Freston Road W10, Hythe Road NW10, Sterne Street W12 - then a chase on foot into Wood Lane and then to White City Stadium
White City Stadium
White City Stadium was built in White City, London, for the 1908 Summer Olympics, often seen as the precursor to the modern seater stadium and noted for hosting the finish of the first modern distance marathon. It also hosted speedway and a match at the 1966 World Cup, before the stadium was...
. Most of the chase is a logical following of Riley's car apart from when the car goes from Hythe Road NW10 into Sterne Street - Hythe Road in 1949 was a dead end.
Cast
- Jack WarnerJack Warner (actor)Jack Warner OBE was an English film and television actor. He is closely associated with the role of PC George Dixon, which he played until the age of eighty....
as PC George Dixon - Jimmy HanleyJimmy HanleyJimmy Hanley was a British actor.Born in Norwich, Norfolk, Hanley began his career as a child actor before becoming popular in juvenile roles...
as PC Andy Mitchell - Dirk BogardeDirk BogardeSir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol in such films as Doctor in the House and other Rank Organisation pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death in Venice...
as Tom Riley - Robert FlemyngRobert FlemyngRobert Flemyng OBE, MC was a British film and stage actor.Flemyng was born in Liverpool, the son of a doctor, and was educated at Haileybury. He began his career as a medical student before abandoning medicine to become an actor. Flemyng made his stage debut in the early 1930s, and worked steadily...
as Sgt. Roberts - Bernard LeeBernard LeeJohn Bernard Lee was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven James Bond films.-Life and career:...
as Insp. Cherry - Peggy EvansPeggy Evans-Selected filmography:* School for Secrets * Penny and the Pownall Case * Look Before You Love * The Blue Lamp * Calling Bulldog Drummond -External links:...
as Diana Lewis - Patric DoonanPatric DoonanPatric Doonan was a British stage and screen actor. He featured in films of the time as The Blue Lamp, Train of Events and The Cockleshell Heroes but never played the leads...
as Spud - Bruce SetonBruce SetonMajor Sir Bruce Lovat Seton of Abercorn, 11th Baronet , better known as Bruce Seton, was a British actor and soldier....
as PC Campbell - Meredith EdwardsMeredith Edwards (actor)Gwilym Meredith Edwards was a Welsh character actor and writer.He was born in Rhosllannerchrugog, Denbighshire, Wales, the son of a collier. He became an actor in 1938, first with the Welsh National Theatre Company, then the Liverpool Playhouse...
as PC Hughes - Clive MortonClive MortonClive Morton was an English actor who made many screen appearances, especially on television. In 1955, he appeared in Laurence Olivier's Richard III and is recalled by fans of Doctor Who for his role as Trenchard in The Sea Devils in 1972...
as Sgt. Brooks - William MervynWilliam MervynWilliam Mervyn was an English actor best known for his portrayal of the Bishop in the clerical comedy All Gas and Gaiters.-Life and career:...
as Chief Inspector Hammond - Frederick PiperFrederick PiperFrederick Piper was an English actor who appeared in over 80 films and many television productions in a career spanning over 40 years. Never a leading player, Piper was usually cast in minor, sometimes uncredited, parts although he also appeared in some more substantial supporting roles...
as Alf Lewis - Dora BryanDora BryanDora May Bryan OBE is an English actress of stage, film and television.-Early life:Bryan was born as Dora May Broadbent in Southport, Lancashire, England. Her father was a salesman and she attended Hathershaw County Primary School in Oldham, Lancashire...
as Maisie - Gladys HensonGladys HensonGladys Henson was a British actress whose career lasted from 1932 to 1976 and included roles on stage, radio, films and television series...
as Mrs. Dixon - Tessie O'SheaTessie O'SheaTeresa Mary "Tessie" O'Shea was a Welsh entertainer and actress.Born in Cardiff to Nellie Theresa and James Peter O'Shea, a soldier who was the son of Irish emigrants, Tessie was reared in the British music hall tradition, appearing on stage as "The Wonder of Wales" as early as the age of six...
as herself
Audiences
The film had the highest audiences in Britain for a British film that year, 13.3 million. This makes it 29th in the most viewed films in the UK ever, and the 10th most popular British film ever.Legacy
Several of the characters and actors were carried over into the TV series Dixon of Dock Green, including the resurrected Dixon, still played by Warner. The series ran on BBC OneBBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
for twenty-one years from 1955 to 1976, with Warner being over eighty by the time of its conclusion.
In 1988, Arthur Ellis's satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
play The Black and Blue Lamp had the film characters of Riley (Sean Chapman
Sean Chapman
Sean Chapman is an English-born actor. He is best known for playing Frank Cotton in Clive Barker's Hellraiser, and its sequel, Hellbound: Hellraiser II. He is also known for voicing the character Sgt...
) PC "Taffy" Hughes (Karl Johnson
Karl Johnson
Karl Johnson is a Welsh actor, notable for acting on stage, film and television. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University. His most notable role to date was the title role in Derek Jarman's 1993 film Wittgenstein...
) transported forwards in time
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
into an episode of The Filth, a gritty contemporary police television series, replacing their modern day counterparts.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier is an original graphic novel in the comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. It was the last volume of the series to be published by DC Comics. Although the third book to be...
by Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and Kevin O'Neill
Kevin O'Neill (comics)
Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
has one panel suggesting George Dixon died in August 1898, the time-period given for the first two graphic novels, as well as The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds is an 1898 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells.The War of the Worlds may also refer to:- Radio broadcasts :* The War of the Worlds , the 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles...
. However, no explanation of this claim is given.
In 2010, the BBC Television drama Ashes to Ashes
Ashes to Ashes (TV series)
Ashes to Ashes is a British science fiction and police procedural drama television series, serving as the sequel to Life on Mars.The series began airing on BBC One in February 2008. A second series began broadcasting in April 2009...
concluded with a short clip of George Dixon, referring to the similarity to Dixon's death in The Blue Lamp and subsequent 'resurrection' for the television series and the underlying plot of the show.