Unterwelt

Ealing goes to the docks in this marvellous story, about robbery, smuggling and life in general aboard a ship, docked in the old port of London. Bonar Colleano plays Dan MacDonald , a seaman on board the freighter 'Dunbar' who supplements his income, by a little harmless smuggling, when he is approached by a gang to take the proceeds of a daring jewel robbery, to a fence abroad.

Shot in and around Tower Bridge, and the area of Southwark, It shows a side of London, still reeling from all the bomb damage from the blitz.The present generation would do well to see this slice of history.

Quite splendid and surprisingly good British film with marvellous and evocative location shooting, mainly in and around the Tower Bridge and the docks. Fast moving, with decent story, well acted and directed, I am amazed I have never come across this before. Living in Greenwich, I was particularly thrilled to see a sequence shot in the Maritime Museum plus a shot which included a glimpse of what looked like a derelict observatory, certainly not surrounded by tourists as it is today. Also great to see the power station billowing smoke and absolutely no docklands development beyond. Earl Cameron plays the West Indian sailor who is shown getting pretty close to the action, even if he is considered, 'Just like all the rest.' Good to see he has continued to work right up to the present. Unlike the co-lead, very popular in his day apparently, Bonar Colleano, who died in a motor accident eight years after making this. Not a 'noir' as some have suggested, but a rattling good yarn and if you are interested in a glimpse of early post-war London, trams and all, this is a must.

A crewman and part-time petty smuggler named Dan MacDonald suddenly finds himself a leading suspect in both murder and a diamond robbery when he agrees to unknowingly smuggle the wrong item for the wrong people. There's a great build-up of suspense towards the end with both Scotland Yard and the real robbers on the trail of Mr. MacDonald.

This film is pretty unique--one of its best features is Earl Cameron as Johnny Lambert, the sole black crewman on board ship and MacDonald's very good friend. The level of friendship between these two men is refreshing to see in a film from 1951. Also a potential romance between Johnny and a wonderful white girl (named Pat) he meets nearly blooms and we are made to feel sympathetic to their desires (at this period in time deemed inappropriate by many) as an audience. There are a number of entertaining characters in this film. Unique is that one of the robbers is actually an acrobat and makes use of it in the robbery.

The film has a very realistic feel to it-like something which could possibly have happened and the words written for characters to utter here is very thoughtful and reflective. An underrated film.

This is a much overlooked and underrated Ealing gem. It features fine performances by Bonar Colleano and Earl Cameron as his friend and ship-mate. Cameron's performance is an important and groundbreaking one for a black actor in a British movie. The location shots of post-war London are wonderful. I thoroughly commend this movie

Pool of London is that city's harbor – think of Liverpool – and the title of an offbeat, satisfyingly bleak thriller from the post-war years (one scene uses the still-standing wall of a bombed cathedral as its backdrop). In fact, its location shooting preserves a dockside area, almost certainly now vanished, that had changed little from Victorian days.

Into the Pool sails the Dunbar, out of Rotterdam. As the merchant seamen on board debark for liberty, the movie starts out as a slice-of-life drama centering on two of them: Bonar Colleano and Earl Cameron (the Bermuda-born actor plays a Jamaican native). We see them link up with the women left behind, or freshly met, and watch them indulge in some harmless smuggling: Nylons, smokes, booze.

But as he makes the rounds of London's raffish nightlife, Colleano is approached to smuggle a package back to Rotterdam. He doesn't know what it is, or much care, but his avaricious girlfriend (Moira Lister) sniffs out a fortune in diamonds, taken in a heist during which a watchman was killed. Colleano, who's been pinched for petty contraband before, has arranged for Cameron to take the package on board. But now the police are on his trail....

Subdued and humane, Pool of London touches on some progressive themes (racial prejudice, interracial romance) but soon tightens its focus into an arrestingly photographed suspense story. The heist itself is carried out by music-hall acrobat Max Adrian – ironic because Colleano's the actor who came from a family of circus daredevils.