The Blue Lamp (1950)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Blue Lamp (1950) – B. Dearden

Affectionate portrayal of cops on the beat in post-war London, showing their camaraderie in the face of a rise in youth crime.  Jack Warner and Jimmy Hanley play mentor and mentee cops who have to deal with rebel Dirk Bogarde who stages a couple of robberies with his partner Patric Doonan and 17-year-old girlfriend (Peggy Evans).  The young hoods are too wet-behind-the-ears for the professional criminal class who refuse to help them (and may even help the police instead).  What we get, then, is partly police procedural with an occasional tilt toward noir (via some expressionist lighting) but more often we see the cops at work in their everyday roles (and in some cases cosily at home). Scenes with Bogarde don’t really reveal the motivation behind his crimes but he’s always charismatic.  Add to this, the real London settings (especially seen in a frantic car chase) and the result is highly enjoyable, although admittedly fantasy (i.e. in the portrayal of the noble and caring cops who are too idealized to be really human).