This film is a remake of a film made in 1953 known as Pick Up On South Street Starred Richard Widmark Jean Peters and Thelma Ritter. The bad guy looked like Alan Arkin but cant see his names in any of the credits It was basically the same theme and even the music used was the same for the most part Man is it hard to get 10 lines when you just want to inform some people about a movie so now a bit of padding to get the 10 lines that's what cost me in University I could not regurgitate 1000 pages on nonsense to tell one simple story Hope this is of interest I think I made my 10 line requirement. Well I am back again to make sure I have the number of lines required to get submitted. Not sure why we have to go 10 lines when you can say it in 4 but anyway maybe now it will be OK for submission to the grammar captains

While riding on a bus in Cape Town, South Africa, an unwitting courier named "Candy" (Jacqueline Bisset) has her purse pick-pocketed by a two-bit thief by the name of "Skip McCoy" (James Brolin). Although she is unaware that she is working for the communists she is told that the envelope she was carrying is extremely important and that she needs to get it back at all costs. So she visits certain underworld figures and finally finds a person named "Sam" (Claire Trevor) who can identify the pick-pocket. Unfortunately, when she tries to buy it from him she is told that he wants a great deal more money than what she has on her. Soon Candy, Skip and Sam become deeply involved in a dangerous game of intrigue which threatens to escalate out-of-control. At any rate, rather than detailing the rest of the story and possibly spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that I thought it had a good premise but that it ended up being a bit dry and mundane. While I liked the performances of both Jacqueline Bisset and Claire Trevor I didn't think either of them was given an adequate script to really enhance the overall value of the movie. As a result I rate it as only average.

This is now starting to be a chore. I'm getting down to my last few films in the Mill Creek Mystery Collection of two hundred and fifty movies, and it's getting more and more difficult to pay attention. This is a somewhat convoluted story involving a pickpocket and Communists and some kind of secret chemical formula but don't ask me anything beyond that. It's just not worth it.And please don't tell me that was Claire Trevor in the role credited to Claire Trevor. Gosh, what happened to her? Give me instead the actress from 1939's "Stagecoach" or 1948's "Key Largo". I know actors and actresses get older but I didn't recognize her here even after seeing her name in the opening credits.Still need a recommendation? OK, it's got James Brolin and Jacqueline Bisset in early lead roles, but this was before they became actors. Try to stay focused here and it's nearly impossible. At least Bisset was appropriately named, her character was Candy. As in eye candy. After that, it's all down hill.

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.