"The Wilby Conspiracy" is primarily notable for the teaming of two
big screen legends: Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine. The 1975 film
itself aspires to be a bold indictment of South Africa's cruel apartheid
regime which saw black residents of the country terrorized and
humiliated by the white minority. Most movies wouldn't go near the
topic in the mid-1970s so the script, based on Peter Driscoll's novel,
is to be commended for being ahead of the game in terms of raising
awareness of the practices that would ultimately bring down the corrupt
regime and see the seemingly impossible achievement of having one-time
political prisoner Nelson Mandela elected as president. Yet,
screenwriters Rod Amateau and Harold Nebenzal were obviously tasked with
primarily delivering an action adventure "buddy" pic that starts off
resembling Poiter's 1950s classic "The Defiant Ones" (the protagonists
are even handcuffed together for a time.) Adding another note of
nostalgia is that the film reunited Poitier with director Ralph Nelson,
with whom he collaborated on "Lilies of the Field" and "Duel at Diablo".
The film opens with a courtroom scene in which a prisoner, Shack
Twala (Poitier) is awaiting what is believed to be a predetermined
sentence for political "crimes" that will see him sent back to prison.
Twala is a prominent black activist who has gained international
attention for his objections to social injustice. Much to the surprise
of Twala and his lawyer, Rina Van Niekerk (Prunella Gee), Twala is
absolved of the crime and is released as a free man. The good feelings
don't last long, however. During the drive home, their car is stopped by
police officers who harass Twala, who becomes enraged and fights back
with the help of Rina's boyfriend, Jim Keogh (Caine), a mining executive
who is largely apolitical. Now wanted by the law, the two men drop off
Rina and flee to Johannesburg, a 900 mile journey. There, Twala hopes to
unite with a fellow political activist who might be able to sneak them
across the border into Botswana. They have plenty of close calls and are
aggressively pursued by Major Horn (Nicol Williamson), a dreaded higher
up in the nation's nefarious security forces that routinely employed
torture. They also learn that there was an ulterior motive in the court
case that saw the government drop charges against Twala. The plot gets
increasingly burdened with secondary characters and the search for a
large cache of stolen diamonds that went missing many years ago. Twala
wants to recover them and deliver them to a man named Wilby (Joe de
Graft), the head of the black resistance movement who resides freely in
Botswana. The plan is to use the diamonds to finance Wilby's attempts to
publicize and shame the apartheid regime. Along the way there are
double crosses and people who turn out to be dubious allies to the men
who are on the lam. Most amusing is Saeed Jaffrey as a timid dentist who
nevertheless risks his life for the activists cause. He also employs a
fellow conspirator, Persis (Persis Khambatta), who seems to have been
primarily written into the film in order to shoehorn in a rather absurd
and unconvincing sex scene between her and Twala. Caine is in top form
as the meek man who turns into an action hero literally overnight and he
has the movie's best one-liners. Poitier, while not wasted, is
under-utilized and lacks any scenes of great dramatic power. Prunella
Gee provides a fine, spirited performance but the scene stealer is Nicol
Williamson, who presents a fascinating villain who is charismatic, yet
cruel and totally dedicated to enshrining white supremacy in South
Africa by whatever means he needs to employ. (Like his real life
counterparts, he naturally considers himself to be a patriot.)
The film abounds with impressive action scenes though a couple come
close to "jumping the shark" in terms of credibility. (Ironically, the
most suspense was generated off screen when an errant camera crashed
through a speeding car with Poitier and Caine in the front seats, almost
killing them both.) The movie also has an adequate score by Lalo
Schifrin, though the decision to open this action opus with a romantic
love song over the credits is bewildering. Because South Africa was
obviously not available as a film location, Kenya substituted nicely and
director Nelson makes the most of the expansive landscapes. Interiors
were shot at Pinewood Studios outside of London. There are quite a few
"behind-the-cameras" talents from the James Bond films: Associate
Producer Stanley Sopel, Sound Recordist Gordon K. McCallum, legendary
stunt coordinator Bob Simmons, First Assistant Editor John Grover and
and Stills Photographer George Whitear. Another trivia note: the film
was produced by actor/director Helmut Dantine, who has a small role in
the movie. So there's a lot of talent both on and off-screen and while
the movie is certainly not a classic, it can be recommended as a fun and
sometimes poignant action flick.
(Now streaming on Screenpix, available through Amazon Prime, Roku, YouTube and Apple TV for $2.99 per month.)