Plot

A wide variety of persons come into Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, some to ask for work and others just to pass the time.

Joe spends a lot of his time at Nick's Pacific Street Saloon. Tom, who credits Joe with once saving his life, stops by regularly to run errands for Joe. Today, Tom notices a woman named Kitty when she comes into Nick's, and he quickly falls in love with her. Meanwhile, a distraught young man repeatedly calls his girlfriend, begging her to marry him. Nick himself muses on all the various persons who come into his bar, some to ask for work and others just to pass the time.—Snow Leopard

In the credits, we read a succinct description of the characters:

Joe (who observes people)

Nick (saloon owner who loves horses)

Tom (Joe's stooge and friend)

Kitty Duval (stage name of Katerina Koronovsky)

Krupp (a bewildered cop)

McCarthy (a blatherskite)

Kit Carson (a cowboy also called Murphy)

Harry (the natural born tap dancing comedian)

Mary L. (a woman of quality)

Dudley Bostwick (a young man in love)

Willie (the pinball machine maniac)

Freddie Blick (a stool pigeon and frame up artist)

Arab philosopher

Wesley (the pianist)

Elsie (Dudleys girlfriend)

Drunkard

Newspaper Boy

Ladies of the Night

A sign outside a Bar in San Francisco reads COME IN AS YOU ARE. Inside the bar, officially called the Pacific Street Saloon, we hear a voice that introduces us to the owner Nick (William Bendix) and Joe (James Cagney), a man who has enough money to give up work in order to hold court at the bar and have fun meeting different people. Another man hangs out at the bar most of the time, commenting on life from time to time, and people call him THE ARAB. Progressive political ideas are bantered about.

A young newspaper boy comes in and offers papers to all. Joe asks him how many he has, the boy says five and Joe buys all five. The Arab (Pedro de Cordoba) gets one of the papers and looks up horse racing information.

The drunk (John 'Skins' Miller) comes in reeling, and Nick shoos and shows him out. This happens at different times. The drunk complains This is a free country, aint it?

A young man Willie (Richard Erdman) is a pinball fanatic who keeps playing the game practically the entire day, commenting on various strategies, asking how to bump the game console to affect his chances.

Tom (Wayne Morris) enters and asks Joe what to do. He thanks Joe for having saved his life by giving him help when he was desperately down and out. Joe orders him around doing errands, like going next door to a bookie to bet on a race, to go buy small items. Tom asks Why? from time to time but Joe never gives him a real answer. Rather, he gets an ill humored Because I want it, thats why!. Tom is sent out to buy a couple of dollars worth of small toys. Tom asks for money for himself, but Joe puts him off. Joe is lazy about getting up from his chair, and asks either Nick or Tom to keep putting nickels in the juke box to play his two favorite pieces over and over.

A breathless young man Dudley (Jimmy Lydon) enters and runs to the telephone to make a call to a girl he loves. He is so excited he forgets the number, and needs to look it up. He dials a number and immediately declares his all consuming love, saying he cant sleep or think of anything else. Then he finds out he has the wrong number. At the other end of the line, a lonely woman insists that she wants to come see Dudley right away and asks for the address. Dudley agrees to wait for her and mopes around meanwhile.

Joe orders champagne and Nick mentions that hes the only person who comes into his joint who ever orders champagne. Why doesnt he go to higher class joints, since he can afford it?

Enter Blick (Tom Powers) who is a bottom feeding scumbag who either informs on people or blackmails them depending on how he can make some dirty money. He threatens to have the bar shut down for having prostitutes hanging around, and asks for 200 dollars. Nick tells him he runs a clean joint year after year, and to bug off. Blick announces he will be back in the evening.

A blonde wanders in (Jeanne Cagney) and sits at the bar. Joe engages her in conversation after overcoming her suspicions. She says her name is Kitty Duval and used to perform in burlesque. Joe invites her to drink champagne with him. We find out he is of Irish ancestry, the of Polish, and she used to live in Chicago. She has dreams of having her own home some day. She wants to dance but Joe says he doesnt.

Tom returns and is immediately attracted to Kitty. Joe tells Tom to dance with Kitty, and they do. After they dance a while, Joe gives Tom some money and tells him to take Kitty somewhere.

A young man named Harry (Paul Draper) enters to ask Nick for a job as an entertainer, saying he is a tap dancer and comedian. He taps around and tries to tell jokes to whoever is in the bar, but he isnt funny. Nick is good hearted and feels sorry for him and tells him to perform in the evening. Harry stays around practicing, tap dancing around everybody.

Soon after, another young man Wesley (Reginald Beane) comes in, saying he needs a job desperately and will do anything. While Nick tells him about having to join a union, he collapses briefly. Nick guesses that he hasnt eaten and sends him into the kitchen to get some food. After a meal, Wesley sits at the piano and its clear he is very talented. Harry tap dances to the piano music. Eventually Nick tells him he will pay him to play the piano.

The older spinster looking for romance who answered Dudley at the wrong number enters and asks for Dudley Bostwick. Dudley is shocked and lies, telling her Dudley has left. The woman angrily denounces him as a liar and leaves. After, Dudley reaches his real girl friend, repeats his words about how madly he is in love, and the girl promises to come meet him at the joint.

Joe engages strikes up a conversation with a woman of some class who sits alone at a booth, by guessing a long variety of combinations of names corresponding to the large initials on her purse, M. L. For the first dozen tries, she is wary of his crazyness, but eventually thinks him harmless and smiles when he guesses Mary. They exchange information about their Irish ancestry and past travels. She is married with two grownup children. He says he was madly in love and wanted marriage but the girl surprised him one day by announcing her upcoming wedding to someone else. They find they were both in Paris about the same time in the past, and daydream together about being each others unfound great loves, and promise to never forget each other as she leaves, never to return.

Eventually, Dudleys girlfriend Elsie comes in, they kiss, and he leaves with her, and Willie gets a fantastic score at the pinball machine.

Joe arranges for Kitty to stay at a posh hotel, Tom comes back to the bar deeply in love and wanting to marry her. Joe sends Tom to the bookie with 80 dollars to bet a win on a specific long shot, trying to get some money for Tom to get married, but Tom takes too long to get there and misses the cutoff and has nothing even though the horse wins and pays 20 to one.

Joe sends Tom out to buy another set of sundry things, among them lots of chewing gum and a handgun from a pawnshop, and bullets. The newspaper boy comes in with the evening paper, Joe buys eleven copies, the boy insists he can be an entertainer and sings Danny Boy.

Later in the day, colorful old timer Kit Carson (James Barton), in cowboy costume enters and spins one hilarious yarn after another, claiming to be an old Indian fighter, while wheedling Joe into buying him one drink after another.

It gets to be evening, and an obviously wealthier couple (Howard Freeman and Natalie Schaefer) enter the joint, slumming as it were, and sit at a table. The wife is much amused at the environment, and insists on staying, even though nothing in Nicks menu appeals to them. Finally Nick suggests champagne like Joe is having, and they agree.

Joe has the gun on the table and asks Kit Carson to show him how to use it. But even though Kit brags about his knowledge of guns, they go through a beginners learning process, pointing a loaded gun all over the place, causing much concern to Nick and the wealthier couple.

Joe and Tom get involved in a contest to see how much gum can be chewed at one time. Joe helps Tom get a job as a truck driver by making a phone call, That way Joe will have a means to support himself and Kitty. They both go out to complete the arrangement.

Kitty comes in, tired of being lonely in her posh hotel, and sits to wait for Joe and Tom. Blick enters and throws his weight around, harassing Kitty and harshly interrogating her to prove she is a prostitute. The wealthier couple attempt to defend Kitty, but Blick is too much for them, and they leave. Having no one to contain him, as Nick is out, Blick takes over the joint and demands that Kitty sing and dance to prove she is an actress, as he yells at her he knows her real name is Katerina Koronovsky, and violently pushes around everyone who gets in his way, particularly Kit Carson, who is ejected.

Joe returns, and a physical fight ensues. The fight ends as Kit reenters with his gun and shoots at Blick, who falls.

In the end, no one gets in trouble. Kitty, apparently a former hooker trying to put the past behind her, gets together with Tom.

Along the way, in between quick entrances and exits of the drunkard, Krupp the cop (Broderick Crawford), two ladies of the night, and Krupps buddy McCarthy (Ward Bond), we hear some principles of living, like Joe saying "Living is an art, it's not bookkeeping. It takes an awful lot of rehearsal for a man to get to be himself."

In the last shot, Nick is cleaning up and decides to take down the sign that says COME IN AS YOU ARE.