"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.
