Pool of London

Director Basil Dearden puts his indelible political activist stamp on most of the films he’s involved with, and the gritty British noir Pool of London is no exception. Never one to shy away from confronting contemporary taboos, Dearden here, among other things, gives us the first bi-racial romantic coupling in a major film (exaggeratedly platonic as it is). Dearden and legendary British cinematographer Ralph Surtees guide the viewer into a shadowy docklands underworld of petty crime and scheming street hustlers living on the edge in London. We’re taken onboard a merchant ship docked in the titular 'pool' near London’s crime-ridden East End, where crew members take advantage of their perpetually drunk skipper to smuggle hard-to-get everyday items (women’s nylons, for instance) to needy Londoners still being tightly rationed after the war. Fast-talking Yank Dan (Bonar Colleano) and Jamaican-born Johnny (Earl Cameron) are at the center of the maritime smuggling ring and seem to have a good thing going until the American, as one might expect, wants bigger game: Dan gets wind of a major diamond heist happening in the City and jockeys himself in for a cut for the action. Not surprisingly, once Dan connects with big-time London criminals, things go awry. Although the interracial relationship between Jamaican Johnny and his white girlfriend is somewhat incidental to the film’s central narrative, it’s a bold move for the times. Their relationship is clearly an oasis of tolerance in an otherwise aggressively racist early 1950s Britain, as Dearden unflinchingly shows. And apart from the cleverly conceived plot and well-drawn characters, the film sports some impressive location shooting from Surtees, as he makes economical use of the sprawling (and relatively uncrowded) London cityscape. Especially well wrought are the atmospheric nighttime scenes set in the shadowy backstreets. It’s the perfect backdrop for this tough-minded but subtle gem of a British crime flick. Contrary to the film’s contemporary American noir cousins, the menacing overtones here are tempered somewhat by the occasional glimmer of hope for humanity.  Highly Recommended. (M. Sandlin)