Friday, March 20, 2020

Pool of London (1951)

A deliciously gritty tale of merchant seamen and crime in early 1950s London. Dan (Bonar Colleano) and his shipmates including Johnny (Earl Cameron) and Harry (Leslie Phillips) have arrived back in London. Dan has a petty smuggling thing going on but his contacts including an acrobat Charlie (Max Adrian) have bigger plans...

In fact Charlie plans a robbery stealing diamonds and use Dan to get them to the Continent. The robbery takes place but a watch man dies, Dan now knows he could get the blame. Meanwhile Johnny has sparked up an romance with Pat (Susan Shaw) but Dan asks him to take a small package onboard...

An interesting slice of early 1950s British crime and the London docks. Not without plenty of violence, crime and racism. Enjoyable is James Robertson Justice who spends his time in port locked in his cabin with a book of poetry and several bottles of brandy!