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The film is a rare example, and one of the best-remembered, of a serious, dramatic work by Creator/EalingStudios. In an atmospheric setting of post-war West London, with rationing still in force and the city scarred by bombsites, it tells the parallel stories of two young men, NewMeat police constable Andy Mitchell (Jimmy Hanley) and {{Delinquent}} Tom Riley (Dirk Bogarde), whose criminal career will climax and end in PC Dixon's murder.

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The film is a rare example, and one of the best-remembered, of a serious, dramatic work by Creator/EalingStudios. In an atmospheric setting of post-war West London, with rationing still in force and the city scarred by bombsites, bomb sites, it tells the parallel stories of two young men, NewMeat police constable Andy Mitchell (Jimmy Hanley) and {{Delinquent}} Tom Riley (Dirk Bogarde), (Creator/DirkBogarde), whose criminal career will climax and end in PC Dixon's murder.



** The film has a BatmanColdOpen depicting a car chase which is irrelevant to the rest of the plot, and climaxes with a nail biting car chase as Tom and his partner-in-crime Spud try to escape from the police.
** The film opens with Dixon directing a passer-by to Paddington station, and ends with Mitchell doing the same thing.

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** The film has a BatmanColdOpen depicting a car chase which is irrelevant to the rest of the plot, and climaxes with a nail biting nail-biting car chase as Tom and his partner-in-crime Spud try to escape from the police.
** The film opens with Dixon directing a passer-by to Paddington station, station and ends with Mitchell doing the same thing.



* DarkerAndEdgier: Although the film looks quite stodgy by modern standards, it has the first ever use of the word "bastard" in a British film, a strongly-implied prostitute minor character, and the relationship between Tom and Diana is quite disturbing. Also, the depiction of the death of a police officer was considered very shocking at the time.

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* DarkerAndEdgier: Although the film looks quite stodgy by modern standards, it has the first ever first-ever use of the word "bastard" in a British film, a strongly-implied prostitute minor character, and the relationship between Tom and Diana is quite disturbing. Also, the depiction of the death of a police officer was considered very shocking at the time.



* SpecialGuest: Real world comedy singer Tessie O'Shea appears and is credited as herself. Tom and Spud attend a performance by her as part of their attempted alibi.

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* SpecialGuest: Real world Real-world comedy singer Tessie O'Shea appears and is credited as herself. Tom and Spud attend a performance by her as part of their attempted alibi.
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[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blue_lamp.jpg]]
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* VocalDissonance: In the chorus rehearsal scene, a large, fat, balding copper has a very high falsetto/counter-tenor voice.

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* VocalDissonance: In the chorus rehearsal scene, a large, fat, balding copper has a very high falsetto/counter-tenor voice.voice.
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* TapOnTheHead: "Taffy" is knocked out after disturbing Tom and Spud during the jewellery store burglary, and is fine afterwards.
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* TheAlibi: Tom and Spud attempt to set up an alibi for themselves by suggesting that they were at a music hall performance, by ordering a drink at the bar and then returning to have it after the cinema robbery.


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* SpecialGuest: Real world comedy singer Tessie O'Shea appears and is credited as herself. Tom and Spud attend a performance by her as part of their attempted alibi.

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* EvenEvilHasStandards: The gangster Mike Randall organises the greyhound-race bookies to help the cops to capture Tom at the end, although it's implied that this is partly an example of this and partly so that [[PragmaticVillainy they'll owe him]].

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* EvenEvilHasStandards: EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Spud is disapproving of Tom's abusive behaviour towards Diana.
**
The gangster Mike Randall organises the greyhound-race bookies to help the cops to capture Tom at the end, although it's implied that this is partly an example of this and partly so that [[PragmaticVillainy they'll owe him]].
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* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: The implied reason for Diana to be attracted to Tom, although the "bad" part turns out to be more extreme than she can handle.



* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: In the first part of the film, there is a poster in the police station canteen about a concert by the station choir. After Dixon (who was a member) is murdered, the poster has a "Cancelled" sticker across it.



* NationalStereotypes: The Welsh cop is voluble and directs the police station chorus.



* StreetUrchin: Queenie is an obnoxious one who finds the gun used in the murder.

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* StreetUrchin: Queenie is an obnoxious one who finds the gun used in the murder.murder.
* VocalDissonance: In the chorus rehearsal scene, a large, fat, balding copper has a very high falsetto/counter-tenor voice.
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* TheGreatBritishCopperCapture: Dixon is shot by Tom when he tries to intimidate him into dropping the gun. Later, the eight cops who arrest Tom at the end are still unarmed, he is holding them at gunpoint when he is nearly trampled by a crowd trying to get out of the stadium and then overpowered by Mitchell.

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* CopKillerManhunt: The iconic British example, seen as incredibly shocking when it was released in 1950.



* DarkerAndEdgier: Although the film looks quite stodgy by modern standards, it has the first ever use of the word "bastard" in a British film, a strongly-implied prostitute minor character, and the relationship between Tom and Diana is quite disturbing.

to:

* DarkerAndEdgier: Although the film looks quite stodgy by modern standards, it has the first ever use of the word "bastard" in a British film, a strongly-implied prostitute minor character, and the relationship between Tom and Diana is quite disturbing. Also, the depiction of the death of a police officer was considered very shocking at the time.
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* OldCopYoungCop: Dixon and Mitchell, until MentorOccupationalHazard happens.
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* TheSociopath: Tom is an obvious one, being sadistic, over-confident, amoral, and, by his own boast, excited by danger.

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* TheSociopath: Tom is an obvious one, being sadistic, over-confident, amoral, and, by his own boast, excited by danger.danger.
* StreetUrchin: Queenie is an obnoxious one who finds the gun used in the murder.
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* TheSociopath: Tom is an obvious one, being sadistic, over-confident, amoral, and, by his own boast, excited by danger.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Sums up late-1940s London, with children playing on bomb sites, austerity and rationing still in force, near-Victorian slums, a panic over juvenile delinquents, trolleybuses, and police cars with bells rather than sirens.

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* TheSociopath: Tom is an obvious one, being sadistic, over-confident, amoral, and, by his own boast, excited by danger.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Sums up late-1940s London, with children playing on bomb sites, austerity and rationing still in force, near-Victorian slums, a panic over juvenile delinquents, trolleybuses, and police cars with bells rather than sirens.
danger.
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* TheSociopath: Tom is an obvious one, being sadistic, over-confident, amoral, and, by his own boast, excited by danger.

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* TheSociopath: Tom is an obvious one, being sadistic, over-confident, amoral, and, by his own boast, excited by danger.danger.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Sums up late-1940s London, with children playing on bomb sites, austerity and rationing still in force, near-Victorian slums, a panic over juvenile delinquents, trolleybuses, and police cars with bells rather than sirens.
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* TheSociopath: Tom is an obvious one, being sadistic, over-confident, amoral, and, by his own boast, excited by danger.
* ValuesDissonance: When the police are called to Diana's father Alf beating his wife, Dixon tells Mitchell not to hurry because it happens regularly and he hasn't killed her yet.

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* TheSociopath: Tom is an obvious one, being sadistic, over-confident, amoral, and, by his own boast, excited by danger.
* ValuesDissonance: When the police are called to Diana's father Alf beating his wife, Dixon tells Mitchell not to hurry because it happens regularly and he hasn't killed her yet.
danger.
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* BackedByThePentagon: The film opens with a dedication and thanks to the Metropolitan Police.



* DawsonCasting: Seventeen-year-old Diana Lewis is played by twenty-nine-year-old Peggy Evans.
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''The Blue Lamp'' (1950) is a famous British PoliceProcedural film that topped the total UK box office charts in its year of release and spawned the long-running TV series ''Series/DixonOfDockGreen''. In a celebrated example of SparedByTheAdaptation, the character George Dixon, played by Jack Warner, was the protagonist of the TV series despite being murdered in the film.
The film is a rare example, and one of the best-remembered, of a serious, dramatic work by Creator/EalingStudios. In an atmospheric setting of post-war West London, with rationing still in force and the city scarred by bombsites, it tells the parallel stories of two young men, NewMeat police constable Andy Mitchell (Jimmy Hanley) and {{Delinquent}} Tom Riley (Dirk Bogarde), whose criminal career will climax and end in PC Dixon's murder.
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!!''The Blue Lamp'' contains examples of:
* BackedByThePentagon: The film opens with a dedication and thanks to the Metropolitan Police.
* BookEnds:
** The film has a BatmanColdOpen depicting a car chase which is irrelevant to the rest of the plot, and climaxes with a nail biting car chase as Tom and his partner-in-crime Spud try to escape from the police.
** The film opens with Dixon directing a passer-by to Paddington station, and ends with Mitchell doing the same thing.
* CurseCutShort: A little girl tells two detectives that her father told her never to talk to the police and that "All coppers are - [she is interrupted]".
* DarkerAndEdgier: Although the film looks quite stodgy by modern standards, it has the first ever use of the word "bastard" in a British film, a strongly-implied prostitute minor character, and the relationship between Tom and Diana is quite disturbing.
* DawsonCasting: Seventeen-year-old Diana Lewis is played by twenty-nine-year-old Peggy Evans.
* {{Delinquents}}: Tom and Spud are a couple of unstable young hoods who are disdained by more experienced criminals like Mike Randall.
* DomesticAbuse: Tom is cruel to his girlfriend Diana, threatening her with a gun for (implied) sadistic sexual kicks, hitting her several times, and trying to strangle her to death at the end of the film because he's afraid that she'll crack and inform on him.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The gangster Mike Randall organises the greyhound-race bookies to help the cops to capture Tom at the end, although it's implied that this is partly an example of this and partly so that [[PragmaticVillainy they'll owe him]].
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Tom's downfall begins when he over-confidently walks into the police station thinking that he can talk his way out of trouble.
* KarmicDeath: Spud is probably killed (although it isn't explicitly stated) when he crashes the car at the end of the chase.
* LondonGangster: Mike Randall is a stereotypical example.
* LostInACrowd: At the end of the film, Tom tries to lose himself in a crowd at a greyhound race at the White City Stadium.
* {{Narrator}}: The early scenes of the film have a narrator moralising about crime and the evils of juvenile delinquency.
* NewMeat: Mitchell is fresh out of training at the beginning of the film.
* OldFashionedCopper: Dixon is the idealised version.
* OminousWalk: By two groups of cops as they trap Tom between them at the end of the film.
* PoliceProcedural: One of the most iconic British examples.
* {{Retirony}}: UnbuiltTrope example -- although the film is often regarded as an example of this, Dixon has decided ''not'' to retire when he is killed by Tom.
* TheRunaway: Diana has run away from home, unhappy about her father's obnoxious behaviour and being expected to look after her rumbustious three younger siblings.
* TheSociopath: Tom is an obvious one, being sadistic, over-confident, amoral, and, by his own boast, excited by danger.
* ValuesDissonance: When the police are called to Diana's father Alf beating his wife, Dixon tells Mitchell not to hurry because it happens regularly and he hasn't killed her yet.

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