The Cape Town Affair

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).

Great for pre-integration scenes of Cape Town (look for one black person and you won't find them!), this remake of Pick Up on South Street (1953) is missing several things, notably Richard Widmark as the film noir villain that makes the whole thing work. This film is the exact opposite of film noir. It's too clean and crisp to be suspenseful. The colors reek of a British comedy ala the Pink Panther or something with Alec Guiness. The whole thing plays like a poor man's "Man From U.N.C.L.E." without the savoir faire of Robert Vaughn. James Brolin, a few years shy of Marcus Welby, M.D., has yet to learn how to act and Jacqueline Bisset is not worth the trip. See the original.

Choppy, poorly directed remake of Pickup on South Street. James Brolin while attractive is bland in the lead never approaching the lowdown grit that Richard Widmark effortlessly gave the character in the original. This was one of Jacqueline Bisset's first roles and her inexperience is evident although at least part of the blame belongs with the director since her next few films, with stronger directors, show a marked improvement over her work here. Unsurprisingly the best performance in the film comes from Claire Trevor as the frowsy Sam but even she doesn't match the peerless performance of Thelma Ritter, considered by many her best work, in the first film. This was Claire's last film for 15 years until she made a delightful return as Sally Field's mother in Kiss Me Goodbye, a much better film than this, and then permanently retired. As for the rest of the film, everybody else gives terrible performances, scenes either just stop or start with a good deal of narrative flow missing and the photography is washed out and overly bright. Not an estimable credit on anybody's resume.

People who are fans of Samuel Fuller (who was one of the writers) or wanting to see early appearances by actors James Brolin and Jacqueline Bisset might find the prospect of watching "The Cape Town Affair" promising. But it won't take them very long upon watching the movie to start regretting their decision. The big problem with this movie is that it is incredibly boring. It's talk, talk, talk, with pretty much NOTHING of consequence or importance happening in the first two- thirds of the movie. A few things happen in the last third of the movie, but not much, and it ends up being almost as boring as the first two-thirds. Another problem with the movie is that the central character (played by Brolin) is not very likable - you'll be wondering why you are bothering to follow this selfish and cold individual. By the way, if you are wondering about the Cape Town setting, while it does occasionally add a little color in the backdrop, it's otherwise wasted - with almost no rewriting, the events of the movie could be taking place in Los Angeles. This is one movie that's pretty much a complete waste of time.

On the plus side, there are interesting shots of Capetown and of Table Mountain. Not that many people know what Capetown looked like in 1967. Not that many people know what country Capetown is IN for that matter, outside of social activists, gold speculators, and surfers. No, it's not near Provincetown. Also there are interesting shots of Jacqueline Bisset at her most -- well, let's use the word "appealing." Her looks are unimpeachable. James Brolin, young and handsome in a mannequin-like way, does pretty good impressions of Clark Gable and Ronald Reagan in other venues.

But you have to ask. Why do they take a peerless piece of cynical and brutal trash like "Pickup on South Street" and do it in color with lesser performers and slipshod direction?

Brolin simply can't SMIRK as well as Richard Widmark. And Bisset just looks too elegant, as opposed to the sluttish and overly made-up Jean Peters in the original. Compare the scenes in which the two actresses utter the same lines -- "You're talking like it was HOT, Joey." Bisset sounds as if she's commenting on the pepper pot soup at Bookbinder's Restaurant. With Peters you know exactly what she means. And Claire Trevor, a decent enough actress in her own right, shouldn't be asked to impersonate Thelma Ritter. Nobody on earth can imitate Thelma Ritter.

Fuller's direction in the original was immediate and claustrophobic. His characters brimmed with verisimilitude. The actors here are going through their paces in settings that aren't nearly seedy enough. I'm leaving the politics aside.

Stick with the original by all means.