The Blue Lamp
Police Constable George Dixon's (Jack Warner's) comment about the missing dog, "You ought to have called him Strachey", is a reference to the then Minister for Food, John Strachey. He was in charge of rationing and, like the dog, was accused of stealing food from the people.,As PC Dixon leaves the police station to go on his beat, he picks up his cape and puts it over his shoulder. A short while later he's seen on his beat, but his cape has disappeared. He may, however, have put the cape into the local police call box before starting his beat.,Diana Lewis: What d'ye think I am? Soft or something?
Spud: Yeah.,We acknowledge with gratitude the help given by the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, Sir Harold Scott,K.C.B., K.B.E., and men and women of the Metropolitan Police. To them, and their colleagues in the Police Service of Britain, we dedicate this film.,Although this film is famous for the first spoken use of the word "bastard" as a profanity, the Talking Pictures TV channel in the UK show a slightly modified version where the word has been removed by a clever piece of editing.,Featured in Tuesday's Documentary: The Ealing Comedies or Kind Hearts and Overdrafts (1970),Bless 'em All
(uncredited)
Written by Fred Godfrey (1917)
Revised lyrics by Jimmy Hughes and Frank Lake (1940)
Sung by Cameron Hall at the police station,London just post-war was still a Victorian city. As the police cars chase the villains along mainly traffic-free roads there is a strange void in the sky - the council estates with their tower blocks are ten years or so in the future. I'd like a closer look at Gladys Henson's kitchen. She's got rid of the old range and cooks on a gas stove in the scullery, but still has a mantelpiece stuffed with nicknacks. Her scenes at home are so touching. At first she can't bear the thought of a lodger in "Bert's old room", but she quickly comes round to Jimmy Hanley as a guest. Another sign that we are in a vanished world: everybody is so THIN! Rationing was still going in 1950.,