Saloon Bar
1940 film by Walter Forde
Saloon Bar is a 1940 British comedy thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Gordon Harker, Elizabeth Allan and Mervyn Johns. It was made by Ealing Studios and its style has led to comparisons with the later Ealing Comedies, unlike other wartime Ealing films which are different in tone. It is based on the 1939 play of the same name by Frank Harvey in which Harker had also starred. An amateur detective tries to clear an innocent man of a crime before the date of his execution.
Plot
The action takes place in London over one evening in the saloon bar of the Cap & Bells pub, just before Christmas. The regulars discuss the forthcoming execution for robbery and murder of the boyfriend of one of the barmaids. A pound note from the robbery is found in the till. Convinced of the condemned man's innocence, and led by bookie Joe Harris, they trace how the note came to be there and unmask the true killer.
Cast
Production
The film's sets were designed by the art director Wilfred Shingleton.
Critical reception
Kine Weekly said "Gordon Harker is the chief spokesman and has never been in better form; neither has the well-chosen supporting cast.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7405709. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940 and 1939.
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This entry incorporates text from “Saloon Bar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.