Nick's Saloon sits on San Francisco's waterfront - a haven for misfits and outsiders. Bar-room philosopher Joe (James Cagney) presides over the tavern, passing out advice and encouragement to friends and strangers alike. Through the swinging doors of the bar pass eccentrics, ex-convicts, delusionals, musical geniuses and heartbroken lovers. When a crooked detective invades the saloon, reality threatens to destroy their asylum, but Joe rallies the bar's oddballs in a vicious confrontation with the scoundrel. William Saroyan turned down several offers to adapt his Pulitzer prize-winning play "The Time of Your Life" until approached by James and William Cagney. Saroyan's idiosyncratic humor was expertly translated by director H.C. Potter and intensified by Cagney's adept portrayal of the aimless visionary Joe.

H.C. Potter supplies heart-tugging direction in the film version of William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning ensemble piece about the various characters who populate Nick's Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace, which is actually a waterfront dive.The Saloon is in the toughest section of San Francisco. Enter Joe (James Cagney), a champagne-soaked "philosopher" with a credo that mixes equal parts cherish-the-moment and bottoms-up. Parading around Joe, who showers love on his fellow inhabitants, are a bull-slinging American Indian, a would-be dancer, a prostitute named Kitty (Jeanne Cagney) who dreams of white picket fences and a lawn, and Joe's handyman, Tom (Wayne Morris). These and other colorful people espouse their hopes and fears, right until the barkeeper announces Last Call. The comedy has been heightened in the film but Saroyan's devout love of common folk shines through. Much of the original dialogue from the play remains in the film.