Plot
The character-driven story of Pool of London centres around the crew of the merchant ship Dunbar, which docks in the Pool of London. The crew members are given shore leave, with some practising petty smuggling and other various dodges.
The film begins with the Dunbar mooring near Tower Bridge. Three crew members, going on shore leave, have to pass a custom inspection. Black crew member Johnny (Earl Cameron), an all-round nice guy, has nothing to declare, and is not meeting any girl in Port. His friend, Dan (Bonar Colleano), has a few pairs of nylons for his girlfriend, Maisie Moira Lister. Harry Leslie Phillips is supposed to be meeting his girl, Sally Renée Asherson but has other fish to fry. Johnny meets, by accident, a pretty blonde, Pat (Susan Shaw), who offers to show him the sights of London, after trying to protect him from a work-colleague's racist behaviour. In a visually rich montage, Johnny and Pat visit the National Maritime Museum and the Greenwich Observatory.
The film is full of atmospheric scenes from Post War London, many in the City, including from the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, and some bombed areas around the cathedral before the rebuilding of Paternoster Square. But also scenes in Southwark, of Tower Bridge, Rotherhithe and the East End. Johnny and Pat get on really well, but Johnny says he has to go back to Jamaica because he has saved up the money to get an education, to fulfil his dreams. He is clearly sad that it means he will not be in England with Pat.
Meanwhile, Dan has had an argument with his girlfriend, and Harry has stood up Sally. Sally and Dad hook up and have what may be a one-night stand. Dan (Bonar Colleano), is asked to smuggle something valuable onto the boat to take to Rotterdam, and inadvertently becomes involved with a jewel robbery in which a night watchman is murdered near St Pauls. He asks Johnny, who has previously refused, to get involved with any smuggling, to take the goods on board for him. Dan feels bad about doing it but thinks the risk is very low. He, then, finds out about the murder; is ditched by his girlfriend, and finds refuge with Sally,as the only place he feels he might be safe. She had thought he was only interested in a one-night stand, and is taken by his honesty and promises to wait for him if he goes to prison, however long that might be.
Dan is captured by his fellow conspirators, who intend to kill him. He escapes from the car at the end of the Rotherhithe Tunnel and is chased by the gangsters, shot and dives into the Thames. The police round up the surviving gang (one falls to his death, another injured in a car crash.) Dan gets onto a Thames barge in the Thames, and is confident that he will get away.
Johnny has meanwhile been taken to a low dive, been persuaded to get really drunk, and his money is stolen. He drunkenly walks back towards the boat. Dan remembers the risk Johnny is taking smuggling the goods onto the boat, so he dives off the boat and into the Thames in order to warn Johnny. Then, he remembers the words of Sally, that she will wait for him, so he gives himself up to the police. Johnny, the viewer might hope, may now be able to continue his relationship with Pat as he does not have the money for the education in Jamaica.
The film shows British society in a good light. Everyone apart from Dan's girlfriend and the gangsters are, basically, nice people and all the organisation seems to run smoothly and with some humanity. The police, the Merchant Navy offices, the bar staff are all decent people, but there are some people who are racist in their encounters with Johnny, who is deeply affected by it but he is supported by Pat and Dan.
