Flatfoot in Africa

Inspector Rizzo, a Naples police officer known for his size and his readiness to use his fists, is approached by a South African policeman who wants to meet him. The meeting never happens: the man is shot in front of Rizzo and dies after showing him a photograph of his young son, Bodo. Rizzo flies to Johannesburg to find out what his colleague was investigating and to locate the boy. There he runs into his old friend and former colleague Caputo, and the two become involved in a case that, depending on which account one follows, concerns drug trafficking, diamond smuggling, or both, and that draws the attention of the people behind it.

The film is a German-Italian production directed by Steno and released in 1978. It is the third entry in the series about Rizzo, coming after The Knock Out Cop and Flatfoot in Hong Kong and before Flatfoot in Egypt. Bud Spencer plays the inspector, with Enzo Cannavale as Caputo; the screenplay is credited to Rainer Brandt, Giovanni Simonelli and Franco Verucci. Among the supporting players are Werner Pochath, Joe Stewardson, Carel Trichardt and Desmond Thompson.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.2 from around 4,200 votes, and on TMDB it also stands at 6.2, from roughly 180 votes. The two audiences agree closely, placing the film as a modestly regarded entry in the series.