The Wilby Conspiracy (1975)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Even though The Wilby Conspiracy starred Michael Caine and Sidney Poitier, two of my favorites, I wasn't really expecting to like it. I thought it would be another boring movie about a small, futile rebellion against apartheid in South Africa. It turned out to be an exciting thriller, one that was extremely entertaining from start to finish! Sidney Poitier plays a newly freed prisoner, but on his ride back home from the courthouse with his lawyer, Prunella Gee, and her boyfriend, Michael Caine, they're accosted by the police. They fight back in self-defense, but knowing that will not hold too much water as an excuse, they flee the scene. As the three try to leave the country, they get involved in a political scheme with Saeed Jaffrey, all the while hounded ruthlessly by police chief Nicol Williamson.While both normally handsome leading men are a little bit grungy in this film, it's still very much fun to watch. Rod Amateau's and Harold Nebenzal's script ties together so many great elements: politics, romance, racial tension, underground rebellion, action, and a touch of humor. They don't include silly comic reliefs that would cheapen the film; instead, it's a sophisticated sarcasm that makes the characters more human. Keep in mind, though, that the film does include the word "conspiracy" in the title, so there will be some unexpected twists and turns, as well as some potentially upsetting violence. Other than that, rent this for an exciting movie night!

I would really have liked to have given The Wilby Conspiracy a higher rating than I did. But unfortunately a really huge and ridiculous error was made in telling the tale.Due to political pressure brought to bear from various world human rights activists, black nationalist Sidney Poitier is freed by the apartheid South African government. On the way to celebrate, Poitier, his lawyer Prunella Gee and her boyfriend Michael Caine get into a mêlée with South African police and after assaulting a pair of them have to flee.But it turns out the government in freeing Poitier in the first place has a whole other agenda. Poitier also has something else in mind, to get a stash of diamonds hidden years ago in a robbery to aid the African National Congress. During the course of fleeing Poitier seeks the aid of an Indian dentist played by Saeed Jeffrey and his assistant Persis Khambatta. While Poitier is hidden away in a modern day priest-hole he takes Khambatta in there with him and while the South African Security are even outside within a few feet of him, Poitier and Khambatta are doing the horizontal mambo. Now granted Poitier had been in prison for 10 years and he was understandably ready to go, still I found it a bit much. The steamy sex scene definitely sold a lot movie tickets, but it was awkwardly planted into the story.Acting honors in this film go to Nicol Williamson as the South African Security Police Chief Horne. He is a chillingly evil man, resolute in defense of the apartheid society and a bigoted product of that same society. Williamson is living proof of what Martin Luther King said about racism being as toxic to the perpetrator as to the victim.The Wilby in the Wilby Conspiracy is a Nelson Mandela like figure who is in exile in neighboring Botswana. He only enters the film at the very end and in a surprising way. The Wilby Conspiracy other than that tacked on sex scene done for box office dollars is a great portrait of the last days of the apartheid society of South Africa. It should be seen for Nicol Williamson's portrayal alone.

A fun politically charged, fast-paced action drama. No politically correct dialog here, as the principals give no quarter when the name calling and racial badgering ensues. A White man and a Black man are thrown together on a political twist of fate and have to overcome their mutual disdain for one another if either of them is to survive. Caine and Poitier, in my humble estimation, do a bang-up job of fulfilling the requirements of their respective roles. Neither widely known nor often mentioned, Prunella Gee does a nice job as Caine's sweetheart and Poitier's legal/political confidant, especially as it pertains to her keeping the peace between them so that they can achieve the task at hand.What is also interesting is to see that even though Indian people and indigenous Blacks were similarly discriminated against in S. Africa (esp. during apartheid), there is still racial friction between those two groups. Not particularly earth-shattering news to many people, but a subject not often underscored in most modern cinematic fare.If you like political melodrama with good plot development and plenty of action, you should like this one.

There are two missing scenes from the version that I saw in Europe in 1979. The first scene is a longer (by 4 min.) of the medical examination of Mrs Van Niekirk as the secret police are trying to find Caine and Portier. The sex scene in Dr Mucherjee's closet is a little longer...a great great sleeper...sardonic and well choreographed.