The Wilby Conspiracy

A black man and white man on the run in South Africa

After a mishap with authorities, an anti-Apartheid activist (Sidney Poitier) and a British engineer (Michael Caine) are forced to flee together from Cape Town to Johannesburg and possible escape into Botswana.

Shot in early 1974 and released the next year, “The Wilby Conspiracy” was helmed by the director of “Soldier Blue” from five years earlier, who’s known for ‘hip’ Lib messages mixed with chunks of exploitation, whether violence or sex. Serious issues are meshed with flip banter and deadly action.

The depiction of the Apartheid police state is overdone in the manner of a comic book. Still, both sides of the debate are clearly presented. For instance, Major Horn (Nicol Williamson) points out that the 3 million Caucasians built the cities, towns, infrastructure, factories, mines and farms of South Africa and shouldn’t be told what to do by the 18 million blacks “20 years out of the trees,” as he puts it. Apartheid has been gone for over three decades at this point and how are things working out? Consider the now-legal land seizures of white farms and removal or murder of the minority people. You could say that, whether the Apartheid era or the present day, we live in a messed-up, unjust world.

In any case, the political and racial complications are interesting and the happenings entertaining for the most part with an action-packed climax. Prunella Gee and Persis Khambatta are on hand in the feminine department; you might remember the latter as the ‘Iliadroid’ in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” four years later. Unfortunately, her career never really took off despite the potential.

It runs 1 hour, 45 minutes, and was shot in Kenya and Pinewood Studios, which is just west of London, along with establishing shots of Cape Town and so forth in South Africa.

GRADE: B-/B