subject: The Blue Lamp - PEM Fastener Supplier - Injection Moldings [print this page] Plot The action takes place in the area of London known as Paddington Green and is set 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 a greyhound track. To Andy Mitchell falls the honour of arresting Riley. Production The producers obtained full co-operation from the Metropolitan Police and were therefore 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 locations were in inner West London, principally the Harrow Road precincts between Paddington and Westbourne Park. 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 Marylebone 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, Senior Street, Ladbroke Grove W10, Portobello Road, Latimer Road, Sterne Street W12 and Hythe Road NW10. The church which features prominently towards the end is St Mary Magdelene Church, Senior Street, W9. All of the streets around the church were demolished in the early 1960s to make way for the new Warwick Estate. Tom Riley's home was in a run down mews; Amberley Mews. This was demolished and replaced by Clearwell Drive. It is from this mews that Riley walks into Formosa Street, then crosses the Halfpenny Bridge. He then goes into Diana Lewis' flat on the corner of Delamere Terrace and Lord Hill's Road where he attacks her and is chased out by the following detective. There then follows one of first extended car chases in British film. The route of the chase is as follows: Senior Street W9, Rowington Close W9, Harrow Road W9, Ladbroke Grove W10, Portobello Road W10, 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 onto Wood Lane and then into 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. White City Greyhound Track was the former 1908 Olympic Stadium and is now the site of the BBC White City building. Cast Jack Warner as PC George Dixon Jimmy Hanley as PC Andy Mitchell Dirk Bogarde as Tom Riley Robert Flemyng as Sgt. Roberts Bernard Lee as Insp. Cherry Peggy Evans as Diana Lewis Patric Doonan as Spud Bruce Seton as PC Campbell Meredith Edwards as PC Hughes Clive Morton as Sgt. Brooks William Mervyn as Chief Inspector Hammond Frederick Piper as Alf Lewis Dora Bryan as Maisie Gladys Henson as Mrs. Dixon Tessie O'Shea as herself Reception Awards The film won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film. 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 Television 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. References Notes ^ Cinema Treasures archive Bibliography The Great British Films, pp 140-141, Jerry Vermilye, 1978, Citadel Press, ISBN 080650661X External links The Blue Lamp at the Internet Movie Database Awards and achievements Precededby The Third Man BAFTA Award for Best British Film 1951 Succeededby The Lavender Hill Mob vde Cinema of the United Kingdom Films A Actors Directors Cinematographers Production designers Editors Producers Score composers Screenwriters UK DVD Chart Films by year Pre 1920 1920s 1930s 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Categories: English-language films | 1950 films | British films | 1950s crime films | Ealing Films | Films set in London | Crime thriller films | Police detective films | Procedural films | Films directed by Basil Dearden
The Blue Lamp - PEM Fastener Supplier - Injection Moldings
