Pool of London (1951) Reviews

• Pool of London

  killickp2006-07-21

  I worked on this film as an apprentice electrician,working for Hays Wharf in To0ley street London s.e.1I was about 16 at the time,and used to put cargo lights on the dockside cranes for the night shoot.They were shot at Mark Browns wharf,which was adjacent to Tower Bridge,and a part of the Hays Group.I can remember Bonar Colleano,and he was always very polite to all of the people attending,always had a cheery Hi,for everyone,a very nice chap.a lot of the scenes on the boat were shot on Sundays or Saturday afternoons,but the ones that were shot on working days were a bit hectic as there were Dockside cranes working overhead,plus Lister trucks dashing about moving the produce to the different warehouses.I also attended the shots where they had been out for the evening and came home to the old house.This was shot in a road called Wilds Rents and was next to Tooley Street,and is in fact still there,but not the houses.The ship was actually the Jaroslav Dowbroski,and they used to paste a paper name on her before she came under Tower Bridge.I have a DVD copy of the film and it still brings back memories.I was surprised at the amount of racial prejudice in the film when i saw it at a much later date,i don't think that this film could be made to-day without some protest.It was however a very good reflection of the times,as there were very few (coloured) people in this country,and those that were were mostly Seamen.The austerity of Post War Britain is also very stark,and a reminder of the hard times just after the 2nd world war.I lived in Bermondsey,and we suffered the heaviest Bombing of any of the London Boroughs,57 continuous nights from 10.30pm until 5.30 am,during which time there was much devastation in the borough.All in all i loved this film for its stark reality and portrayal of the times,plus the easy going acting of Bonar and James Robertson Justice.All in all very well type cast,and a good performance by all.Bill K

• Offbeat post-war thriller set in and around the London dockyards

  bmacv2003-08-03

  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.

• A Fascinating look at the London docks of the early 1950's

  MIKE-WILSON62001-07-24

  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.

• Good Suspense Thriller-Truly Unique

  Space_Mafune2002-12-04

  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.

• A realistic representation of post war London

  Terry Weldon2007-02-25

  I remember some scenes in this film being shot at the end of the street I lived in in East London. As a 12 year old boy I was fascinated by the way they moved the bus stop so Earl Cameron and Susan Shaw could pop into the nearby café for a drink. Other scenes were filmed in the local music hall, the Queens Theatre and in the Rotherhithe Tunnel. Every time I drive through there I remember this movie. And what a great film, the cast, plot, location all perfect. Along with other contributors I also cannot understand why there has been no DVD release. There are far less deserving films which have been released. If the powers that be ever read these comments please consider releasing this on DVD.