12/4/06: The Cape Town Affair (1967)We sat down to watch
The Cape Town Affair because we wanted to see what Cape Town looked like in 1967. It only took a few minutes for us to learn what many hipsters seem to have known.
The Cape Town Affair is a remake of the classic anti-Commie epic
Pickup on South Street (1953)—except with an even more amazing political slant.
Actually, there’s a lot that’s amazing about
The Cape Town Affair. There may be a few movies where a pickpocket unknowingly lifts valuable microfilm from a Soviet spy.
Cape Town, however, is a straight lift of
Pickup’s script. It’s like Gus Van Sant’s
Psycho, right down to the use of actors who lack the original cast’s charisma.
James Brolin is certainly no Richard Widmark. In fact, his turn as the pickpocket looks more like Chris Isaak trying to impersonate a Dead End Kid. Jacqueline Bisset—as the Commie dupe who has a change of heart—is no Jean Peters, either. The plot is a little off, too. After all, the good guys are trying to maintain the freedoms of South Africa under Apartheid.
RightWingTrash certainly remains anti-Apartheid. We’re also pro-Cameron Mitchell and pro-Peter Fonda and pro-all the other great actors who knew that the big ’80s boycott of Africa was a bad idea. We’re also anti-dictator, whether they’re homegrown or flying in from Moscow.
In that spirit,
The Cape Town Affair is a lot of fun. Forget
The Expert; here’s the real cinematic skeleton that Mr. Streisand wants to keep from Barbra. At least his character retains the first film’s moral ambiguity. In
Pickup on South Street, Richard Widmark isn’t merely an anti-hero because he’s a petty thief. He also has disdain for national security. Brolin’s character has the same attitude. He knows he’s got something of value, and he’s not cooperating as a suspect. The authorities let him know that he’s putting the country at risk, and Brolin echoes Widmark: “Are you waving the flag at me?” There’s also some immortal dialogue once the government gets threatening:
“Do you know what treason means?”
“Who cares?”
Barbra may at least forgive Brolin for playing a pickpocket who never quite discovers a sense of national pride. Any heroism is mainly motivated by the bod of Bissett. It’s left to the legendary Claire Trevor to really be out of fashion. She plays the aging informant who gets a final redemption while being interrogated by a weasely Russian agent. Preferring to skip the torture, she needles the creep into shooting her—but not before this fun exchange:
“What else do you know about Commies?”
“Nothing, except I don’t like them.”
Well, at least she dies knowing more than Bishop Tutu.
Make it your own: We never thought we'd be writing about a cheap imitation before getting to
Pickup on South Street. It’s just that
The Cape Town Affair showed up this month on The Fox Movie Channel. (“Of course,” says Brolin, dodging a rolling pin. “
Fox!”) Look for
the next screening on the channel, or get your own copy—although this is one film that's still in desperate need of a Special Edition with a commentary track. Choose from
a recent decent version, or enjoy
the cheap DVD that pairs
Cape Town with Brolin’s underseen crime caper
High Risk (1981).
