Basil Dearden achieves a masterful sense of balance in Pool of London: character and plot, melodrama and noir, Johnny and Dan. The film even opens and closes with the coming and going of a commercial ship in the eponymous body of water; two merchant marines disembark for the weekend, but only one will return. Dan (Bonar Colleano) seeks out excitement and danger, particularly in the form of smuggling black market goods onboard, while Johnny (Earl Cameron) is content to find a nice girl named Pat (Susan Shaw) who isn’t repelled by the color of his skin. When Dan’s offered cash to transport stolen diamonds to Rotterdam, he agrees, which launches the pair’s slow descent into hell. Gordon Dines’ cinematography captures the Thames in all its nautical splendor, particularly during the last five minutes, and shows off the reflective sheen of empty dockside streets at night. The diamond heist is thrillingly shot, including a particularly daring leap from one rooftop to another, and Johnny’s drunken stupor toward the end is augmented through Dutch camera angles and bars of shadow. But there’s very little redeeming here; the only spot of hopefulness lies in friendship, and even that’s bittersweet.
