Flatfoot in Africa
1978 film by Stefano Vanzina
Piedone l'africano (internationally released as Flatfoot in Africa, Knock-Out Cop and The K.O. Cop) is a 1978 Italian-West German "poliziottesco"-comedy film directed by Steno and starring Bud Spencer. It is the third and penultimate chapter in the "Flatfoot" film series. It is preceded by Flatfoot and Flatfoot in Hong Kong and followed by Flatfoot in Egypt.
Plot
A trail of illicit diamonds takes Flatfoot and his acquaintance, Naples police commissioner Caputo, from Johannesburg to Swakopmund in the hopes of breaking up a South African smuggling ring. They are joined by Bodo, an African child, and confounded in their search by corrupt mining officials and an antagonistic inspector in the South West African police.
Cast
Bud Spencer as Insp. "Flatfoot" Rizzo
Enzo Cannavale as Caputo
Werner Pochath as Spiros
Joe Stewardson as Smollet
Carel Trichardt as captain Muller
Dagmar Lassander as Margy Connors
Desmond Thompson as Inspector Desmond
Baldwin Dakile as Bodo
Antonio Allocca as Receptionist
Percy Hogan as Dimpo
Giovanni Cianfriglia as Bus Hooligan
Trivia
During filming in South Africa, there was an incident when Bud Spencer wanted to eat together with black actor Baldwyn Dakile, who played Bodo, in a restaurant in Johannesburg. The boy was denied entry due to apartheid. Spencer then decided not to eat in the restaurant either, but was later informed by the police chief that he would be expelled from the country immediately if this behavior was repeated in the future.
Bud Spencer was not dubbed in the original version in this film, as in many of his films, but can be heard in his own voice.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Flatfoot in Africa” is 1978 film by Stefano Vanzina. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Flatfoot, Africa and film, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1978 film by Stefano Vanzina” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q694040. 12 of 12 selected statements include explicit references; 12 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1978.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Flatfoot in Africa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.