An inconsequential, almost scene-for-scene remake of Sam Fuller's great Pickup On South Street, The Cape Town Affair suffers from weak casting--James Brolin is no Richard Widmark, and Claire Trevor attempts but fails in her Thelma Ritter impersonation. Shot on location in South Africa, the film barely recognises the existence of non-white characters, and when it does--in the person of Muhammad, a sleazy fence--a white South African, Gabriel Bayman, assays the role. Whilst the film maintains the original's Free World vs. Red Peril dichotomy, it's impossible to ignore the political realities of South Africa in 1967. With Nelson Mandela still in the early stages of his time in prison, 'communist' in South Africa was virtually synonymous with 'anti-Apartheid activist'. The prominently featured pictures of Hendrick Verwoerd in almost every shot in the police department confirm that this film was just as intent on being state-sanctioned propaganda as on being a work of art.
Review of The Cape Town Affair
