Movie Review: The Cape Town Affair

The Cape Town Affair a.k.a. Escape Route Cape Town

Starring: James Brolin, Jacqueline Bisset, Claire Trevor, Bob Courtney, John Whiteley, Gordon Mulholland, Siegfried Mynhardt, James White, Gabriel Bayman, Raymond Matuson, Arthur Hall, Patrick Mynhardt, Tromp Terre'blanche 

Director: Robert D. Webb

Killarney Film Studios, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, South Africa, 1967.

This movie can be found in Fuel Injected Films 20 Movie Collection by Mill Creek Entertainment.

The story was written by Samuel Fuller, Harold Medford and Dwight Taylor. It was a remake of Fuller's 1953 film "Pickup on South Street."

Skip McCoy (James Brolin) is a pickpocket who steals Candy's (Jacqueline Bisset) wallet. In that wallet was a microfilm that was to be delivered forwards. However she does not know that her boyfriend Joey (John Whiteley) is selling top secret information to Communist spies. Captain Herrick (Bob Courtney) and Warrant Officer 'Donkey' Du Plessis (Gordon Mulholland) investigate.

Skip McCoy and Candy

Joey

'Donkey' Du Plessis

Flamboyant informant and tie-seller Sam Williams (Claire Trevor) gives the police a list of possible pickpockets. Hard-boiled McCoy refuses to give police any information. BTW Young James Brolin looks just like Christian Bale:

Sam Williams

Also Candy buys information from Sam. Candy goes to McCoy's shack and McCoy knocks her out in the dark. Romance builds up between the two! However McCoy suspects that Candy is only trying to use him and accuses her of being a Commie. Ugly truth about Joey is revealed to Candy. The police hatch a plot with Candy to catch the spy ring. Joey results to violent actions to get the microfilm. When Candy is injured, it is McCoy's job to make the pesky Commies pay.

Romance follows

The movie is slowly moving spy thriller. The movie has easy-going feel and never really gets very exciting. There are some murders and couple of fistfights but nothing much happens. It feels like an standard episode of some 1960s spy series. Claire Trevor steals the show in the scenes she's in. Although the movie is set in Cape Town, it could as well use any American city instead. For some reason some DVD covers show James Brolin with a beard (and often also older Jacqueline Bisset) .

Rating: Average