Clear-cut direction and interesting location shots of London’s back streets help the story along.

A warm and affectionate tribute to the London metropolitan police in the daily performance of their duties is cleverly interlaced with a good running crime melodrama of a conspicuously realistic sort.

The Blue Lamp, in short, has both the dramatic tension and the robust ironic humour which have made the reputation of the realistic British cinema.

A warmly human, unpretentious yarn about the murder of an affable London policeman. The many amusing incidents are part and parcel of the story, not lugged in for "comic relief."