The film is set in 1967, at the height of the Cold War. On a Cape Town, South Africa, city bus, a young woman named Candy (Jacqueline Bissett) suspects she's being trailed by government agents. They have correctly deduced she is acting as a courier for Communist operatives. However, a small distraction occurs when a pickpocket, Skip McCoy (James Brolin), deftly lifts a wallet from Candy's purse before exiting at the next stop. Candy uses the diversion to slip away from her pursuers. But later, when checking her purse for the wallet, she discovers it is missing. The wallet's content, an envelope containing state secrets on microfilm, is now in the possession of McCoy. Naturally, Candy's employers are displeased, and they order her to find and retrieve the stolen microfilm—or else. As a result, Candy begins to question her own allegiances.
Meanwhile, government agents solicit local Cape Town authorities for their assistance in tracking down the pickpocket. With valuable assistance from underworld contact Samantha "Sam" Williams (Claire Trevor), they locate the elusive McCoy who proves uncooperative at first. But when he becomes acquainted with Candy and begins to grasp the evil of those behind the theft of government secrets, his patriotic fervor becomes aroused. Before long, he is surprised to find himself aligned with both Candy and the police in tracking down and exposing enemies of the state.
Commentators describe the film as dull, slow-paced, poorly acted and tedious. The film does, however, paint an interesting picture of life in South Africa under apartheid as seen from the point of view of official government policy. All the leading characters are white and even street scenes contain few non-whites.[3]
CAPE TOWN AFFAIR, The
Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 36, Iss. 420, (Jan 1, 1969): 8.
BIDING HIS TIME: James Brolin Looking for Role Outside Weekly TV Rut
Murphy, Mary B. Los Angeles Times 2 Sep 1970: h17.
FILM AS EVIDENCE, FILM AS HISTORY AND FILM IN HISTORY: SOME AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES
Bickford-Smith, Vivian. African Research & Documentation; London Iss. 110, (2009): 17-27.