A waste of time. Not worth watching. No wonder the film played as a support on its original theatrical release. Filmed in murky color (but cleaned up for DVD) and directed in a thoroughly routine, flat-footed style long shots bisected with endless pedestrian close-ups Cape Town Affair is worse than routine. It's amazing how little tension, and how piffling the suspense, the present writers, director and players manage to extract from a scenario that was originally tautly exciting. How slowly paced, how tediously drawn out, how downright wearisome each scene now appears! How sparse the dramatic impact Webb is able to furnish from his real Cape Town (South Africa) locations! True, he is hampered by a script that even in its 82-minute version is unmercifully padded out, over-extended and over-weighted with extraneous dialogue. The players are no help whatever. Claire Trevor has a grand time chewing up the scenery in the Thelma Ritter role, but her performance is an utter bore. The same goes for Jacqueline Bisset (who is not very flatteringly photographed or costumed to boot) and James Brolin (who exhibits very little in the way of charisma).
Review of The Cape Town Affair
