This is a well-made movie that satisfactorily and seamlessly combines a crime drama with some social commentary and characters that aren't just cardboard cutouts.
The story takes place from a Friday to a Sunday in London.
Dan (Bonar Colleano), a sailor on the Rotterdam to London route, engages in petty smuggling to get the money to impress the sort of girlfriend (Moira Lister) who's impressed by having money spent on her.
On this trip he's going to make some real money (a hundred quid!) by smuggling out a package and deliver it unsealed in Rotterdam, no questions asked.
A gang is going to use the skills of an aging acrobat (Max Adrian) and inside info from the acrobat's pensioned-off brother to commit a jewel robbery. The plan is to carry out the robbery on a Sunday, give the package to Dan who sails that afternoon.
A bottle of milk upsets the masterplan and things start to go wrong all around.
Not knowing this Dan, because he's known to Customs, plans to get his pal, the more straight-laced Johnny (Earl Cameron), to bring it aboard ship. Johnny is black. Over his weekend he encounters both racism and a naïve "nice girl" (Susan Shaw) who seems oblivious to the problems an inter-racial couple would experience in 1950's London. I've read that this was the first British film to have a black man-white woman love story.
To tell more would be a spoiler particularly as you don't know how certain of the characters will react when things don't go as they wished.
This isn't a masterpiece of world cinema but it doesn't pretend to be one. It is, as I say, a well-made piece. If imDb let you do fractions I'd give it seven and a half.
Review of Pool of London
