What a waste of my time!!!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

The Cape Town Affair is a remake of the classic Pickup on South Street. In this one, without realizing what he's doing, a pickpocket named Skip (James Brolin) steals some microfilm from a woman named Candy (Jacqueline Bisset). Candy didn't really know what she had - she was just working as a go-between. Pretty soon, Skip and Candy have secret agents from both sides trying to get the microfilm. And at least one of them doesn't play nice.My advice - skip The Cape Town Affair and look for the original. The problem with the remake is that much of it is just plain old dull. I blame a lot of that on Brolin. Richard Widmark was a big part of making the original as entertaining as it was. Brolin is no Widmark. And if Brolin's not to blame, then surely director Robert D. Webb is. The direction is uninspired leading to a lifeless film. Webb is no Samuel Fuller.Because I didn't rate it lower than a 4/10, there's obviously something here I did enjoy. First, if nothing else, watching The Cape Town Affair is like opening a time capsule. I've seen thousands of movies in my life, but I've never seen one that did a better job of documenting what Cape Town actually looked like in the 60s. Very interesting. Second, Jacqueline Bisset is worth at least a point in the rating. I think that all I need to say is that I was 14 years old when I saw The Deep in the theater. If you've seen the movie, you'll understand my fascination with Ms. Bisset.

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.

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.

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).