Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
Sidney Poitier marathon: The Wilby Conspiracy (1975) – Let’s Do It Again (1975) – A Piece of the Action (1977)

Sidney Poitier marathon: The Wilby Conspiracy (1975) – Let’s Do It Again (1975) – A Piece of the Action (1977)

Last updated on: February 18, 2021 at 5:00 am by Peter T. Chattaway

Sidney Poitier marathon: The Wilby Conspiracy (1975) – Let’s Do It Again (1975) – A Piece of the Action (1977) 2021-02-11T14:22:57-08:00 Peter T. Chattaway

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The latest in a month-long series of re-posts from my Facebook marathon in April 2020.

–

Sidney Poitier marathon part 17 (1975-1977):

The Wilby Conspiracy (1975) is a sort of political thriller in which Sidney Poitier plays a South African revolutionary, newly released from prison, who, for various reasons, finds himself running from the law with his lawyer’s English boyfriend, played by Michael Caine.

It’s a little like 1958’s The Defiant Ones, inasmuch as Poitier is a fugitive making his way through a racist society (Jim Crow there, apartheid here) with a white man he has never met before and with whom he doesn’t get along particularly well. Poitier is even wearing handcuffs at first (which he removes, in a rather tense scene, with the help of a machine that could very easily cut through his arms if he isn’t careful), but at least he is not shackled to the white man this time.

The gist of this film is that Poitier and Caine have to make it across the border to Botswana, where the leader of Poitier’s movement is hiding, and along the way they also have to retrieve some diamonds. But the two of them are being pursued by a ruthless policeman (played by Nicol Williamson, who went on to play Merlin in 1981’s Excalibur) who gets several opportunities to articulate the racist rationale behind his government’s policies.

A few quick points:

— The main characters have to endure some indignities along the way. At one point, because Poitier’s hands are cuffed and his fingers are numb, Caine has to undo Poitier’s zipper and help him pee. (We don’t actually see the latter action, which is fine by me.) Meanwhile, Caine’s girlfriend — the lawyer — is subjected to a couple of humiliating strip searches offscreen and the police walk in on her and Caine while the two of them are in the bathtub together and she has to sleep with a guy in order to get him to fly them all across the border and she drives a Jeep in her underwear to distract the authorities while the men are going somewhere else… and by the end of the film, she really doesn’t seem to be registering any more just how much crap the movie has put her through.

— Poitier’s character says he went to a missionary school and, “instead of Mark and Luke, I discovered Marx and Lenin.” And so this film alludes to the Communist influence on African post-colonial politics, just as 1973’s A Warm December did.

— An Indian dentist comments at one point, “I’ve gone metric.” The metric system was first proposed in France in the 1790s, but I do recall that its widespread usage (here in Canada, at least, and thus perhaps in other parts of the Commonwealth) seemed to be something new-ish when I first went to school in the 1970s. I heard people talking about imperial-to-metric conversions back then a lot more than I do nowadays, at least.

— The racial tension in this film is not just between black and white; an Indian character says her people will be the losers if the black population of South Africa ever rises up against the white population. This is reminiscent of how 1972’s Buck and the Preacher acknowledged the fact that black and Native Americans in the 19th century had reason to distrust not just the white Americans but each other as well.

— Poitier gets top billing over Michael Caine. Poitier was the more well-established star at the time, but had taken second billing to other actors so frequently in his career I felt it was worth noting this. For what it’s worth, it was not uncommon for Caine to take second billing at this point in his career, e.g. behind Sean Connery in 1975’s The Man Who Would Be King, behind Laurence Olivier in 1972’s Sleuth, etc.

— This movie marked the first time that Poitier had played a modern-day African since 1957’s Something of Value (set in Kenya) and The Mark of the Hawk (possibly set in a fictitious country, but filmed partly in Nigeria); prior to that, he had played a South African in 1951’s Cry the Beloved Country. He also played ancient or medieval North Africans in 1964’s The Long Ships and 1965’s The Greatest Story Ever Told.

— This movie marks the English-language debuts of Persis Khambatta (who went on to play Ilia in 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture) and Rutger Hauer (who went on to star in 1982’s Blade Runner and many other films).

— The only other movie to co-star Michael Caine and Rutger Hauer is 2005’s Batman Begins, which was made three decades after this film — and The Wilby Conspiracy even has a scene in which bats fly at Caine while he’s going down into a sinkhole!

— Poitier has a love scene in a closet with Khambatta which might be the sexiest scene of his entire filmography, at least up until now — though the nudity is implied, not graphic.

— Reunions: The film is directed by Ralph Nelson, who previously directed Poitier in 1963’s Lilies of the Field and 1966’s Duel at Diablo (the former of which won Poitier his Oscar for best actor). This was the last time Poitier worked for a director other than himself for over a dozen years.

Poitier’s next two films reunited him with Bill Cosby, and while Wikipedia says that these films were “sequels” to 1974’s Uptown Saturday Night, they aren’t, really. For one thing, the characters have different names, and there are no references to the events of the earlier movies.

Admittedly, Let’s Do It Again (1975) does cast Cosby and Poitier in very similar roles, right down to their clothing and hairstyle fashions. Even the title seems to suggest that this film is an extension of the earlier film. But the similarities between the characters are more akin to how comic duos like Laurel & Hardy or Bob Hope & Bing Crosby used to work together in movie after movie while playing different people. Same character types, sure. Same characters, not so much.

This time, the story hinges on Poitier’s ability to rig boxing matches by hypnotizing the fighters. He and Cosby do this once to raise money for their Afrocentric fraternal lodge, the Sons and Daughters of Shaka, but when the powers behind the boxing matches realize what these two men have done, they force Poitier and Cosby to rig another match or two.

A few quick points:

— The first boxer who is hypnotized by Poitier is played by Jimmie Walker, whose sitcom Good Times premiered one year earlier in 1974.

— The 1990s rapper Biggie Smalls (who went on to be known as The Notorious B.I.G.) took his name from one of the characters who manipulates Cosby and Poitier in this film.

— I don’t recall Cosby doing anything particularly lascivious in Uptown Saturday Night, but in this film he leers at a couple of women, and in one case he is so distracted he crashes a forklift. Incidentally, Cosby’s character is married, and in another scene, he and his wife openly talk about how horny they are while eating at a restaurant with Poitier and his wife, the latter of whom objects to the topic of their conversation.

— This time in LGBT references: One of the fight organizers uses the phrase “college-educated faggots”. That makes this the third Poitier film to use this epithet, following 1961’s A Raisin in the Sun (which similarly linked the f-word to college education) and 1967’s To Sir, with Love (where it’s not clear how we’re supposed to feel about the person who uses the f-word).

— Reunions: The leader of the fraternal lodge is played by Ossie Davis, who was in 1950’s No Way Out with Poitier, and whose wife Ruby Dee was also in that film and in five other films with Poitier. (Ossie Davis also took over the lead role in the stage version of A Raisin in the Sun after Poitier went back to Hollywood.)

Poitier’s next collaboration with Cosby was A Piece of the Action (1977), which doesn’t even look like a sequel to the other two Poitier-Cosby films. Cosby is clean-shaven in this film, for one thing, and this time he and Poitier play well-to-do, well-dressed thieves rather than the working-class blokes they played in the first two films.

In this film, James Earl Jones plays a retired cop who knows a lot about Poitier and Cosby’s crimes but, instead of turning them over to the authorities, he uses this information to blackmail them into volunteering at a community centre for young black people who need help applying for jobs.

Naturally, the kids here are rowdy, and Cosby and Poitier chafe at having to work with them, but by the end of the film, everyone has learned a thing or two and become a better person, and everyone is dancing together in the classroom as the kids graduate and the closing credits play.

The film basically plays like a hybrid of the earlier Poitier-Cosby con-man films and Poitier’s even earlier role-model films, especially To Sir, with Love. There is even a scene in which Poitier teaches his students the value of dignity by getting them to talk to strangers on a sidewalk, which he will do again a couple decades later in 1996’s To Sir, with Love II.

There are some noteworthy differences between this film and To Sir, with Love, though. For starters, Poitier actively kicks a student to the floor in his very first classroom session, just to teach him a lesson, which the Poitier of that other film would never do. Also, one girl stands up in class and chews out a female teacher for being a “bourgeois” type who exploits “ghetto” kids, and she is a lot more articulate, and given a lot more time to make her point, than any student in the other film.

But it’s interesting to see how this film brings together different strands of Poitier’s filmography — not least because this was the last film that Poitier would act in for over a decade. This was the note that the classic movie-star phase of his career ended on, essentially. And it ended by putting a new socio-political spin on one of his most iconic personae.

A few other quick points:

— This film came out two years after Poitier’s previous film, which made 1976 the first year without a single new Poitier film since 1953. The gaps got even longer after this: He wouldn’t direct another film until 1980, and he wouldn’t act in another film until 1988.

— Poitier was 50 when this film came out, but I don’t believe his character’s age is ever specified. His character is living with a woman who is about to celebrate her 29th birthday (and her parents complain that she and Poitier are “living in sin”).

— In one scene, a waiter brings a table to the phone and plugs it into a phone jack in a nearby post. I love these glimpses of how technology used to be used.

— This is the first film to star one of Poitier’s children, i.e. Sherri Poitier, who was 21 at the time. I am still not sure which character she played, but she appears last in the credits, as someone named “Cookie”. She doesn’t have any other acting credits at the IMDb, though a few of her siblings do; her half-sister Sydney has been the most active onscreen, and appeared in the 1999 miniseries Noah’s Ark and the Quentin Tarantino film Death Proof (which was part of 2007’s Grindhouse), among other things. Poitier’s older brother Cyril also appears in this film (and in Uptown Saturday Night).

— The creepiest Cosby moment yet in a Poitier film: A woman comes up to Cosby out of the blue at a nightclub, while his date is in the bathroom, and says, “If you don’t dance with me, Imma hollar rape.” Cosby: “Is that a request?” Woman: “What, the rape or the dance?” Cosby: “Don’t make no never mind to me.” Woman: “Don’t make no never mind to me, neither!” And then they dance.

— This time in LGBT references: This might not be a reference, but when the one girl chews out her female teacher in class, she says at one point that the teacher needs a man “or someone”, and the teacher breaks down in tears and says that the girl has no right to imply such untruths. Is the teacher responding specifically to the insinuation that she might need a lover of either sex, or is she responding to some other part of the girl’s tirade? It wasn’t clear to me, at any rate, but this did some like one plausible interpretation of their exchange.

— Reunions: This film and Let’s Do It Again were both scored by Curtis Mayfield, who famously wrote the music for the 1972 blaxploitation film Super Fly. This is also the first film to co-star Poitier and James Earl Jones; they would both go on to be part of the ensemble in 1992’s Sneakers. (This film came out the same year that Jones began providing the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies, and it came out the same year he played one of the Magi in Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth.)

–

The image above shows Rutger Hauer, Michael Caine, Prunella Gee and Sidney Poitier in The Wilby Conspiracy*.*

buck and the preacher

curtis mayfield

james earl jones

jimmie walker

let's do it again 1975

Previous Post

February 17, 2021

Sidney Poitier marathon: A Warm December (1973) - Uptown Saturday Night (1974)

Next Post

February 19, 2021 Sidney Poitier marathon: Stir Crazy (1980) - and two non-Poitier films that also co-starred Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anglican Planet Articles BC Christian News BC Report Bible Movies Bible Review Blog Books & Culture Campus Times CBC Radio Christianity Today ChristianWeek Essays Faith Today Festival Cinemas Guide Film Journals Georgia Straight Interviews MB Herald National Catholic Register Salvationist Today's Christian Two Chairs Ubyssey Uncategorized Vancouver Courier Vancouver Sun

Select a Month August 2025 April 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 May 2024 February 2024 December 2023 May 2023 March 2023 November 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 September 2019 July 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 April 2012 January 2012 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 November 2003 October 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 March 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 April 2001 March 2001 February 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 August 2000 July 2000 June 2000 May 2000 April 2000 March 2000 January 2000 October 1999 August 1999 May 1999 April 1999 February 1999 January 1999 December 1998 November 1998 October 1998 August 1998 July 1998 June 1998 April 1998 March 1998 January 1998 November 1997 September 1997 July 1997 June 1997 April 1997 March 1997 February 1997 January 1997 December 1996 October 1996 September 1996 June 1996 March 1996 February 1996 January 1996 April 1995 November 1994 September 1994 September 1991

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Selah," found often in Psalms, likely mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Give thanks Pause or reflect Sing loudly Forever