The Blue Lamp

The Blue Lamp is a British crime film released in early 1950 by Ealing Studios. Directed by Basil Dearden and starring Jack Warner, Jimmy Hanley and an early and defining role for Dirk Bogarde. It was the progenitor of the long-running television series Dixon of Dock Green.

The title of the film refers to the blue lamp which traditionally hung outside British police stations.

The story, written by veteran T.E.B. Clarke (an ex-policeman), is on the cusp of the change to the "social realism" films that would emerge in that decade, but still holds close to a simple moral structure. The police are the honest guardians of a decent society, controlling the disorganized crime of a few unruly youths.

Warning: wikipedia contains spoilers

Decent old copper George Dixon (Warner) 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 achronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of Tom Riley (Bogarde). Facing a desperate youth with a gun Dixon walks to his own death almost uncomprehending. Despite this the ending is another Ealing quirk - ordinary decent society, including 'professional' criminals, band together to catch the murderer at a greyhound track.