SHAFT IN AFRICA (1973, USA, 112m, 18) ***½
Action, Crime, Thriller
dist. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (USA), MGM-EMI (UK); pr co. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) / Shaft Productions Ltd.; d. John Guillermin; w. Stirling Silliphant (based on characters created by Ernest Tidyman); pr. Roger H. Lewis; ph. Marcel Grignon (Metrocolor | 2.39:1); m. Johnny Pate; ed. Max Benedict; pd. John Stoll; ad. José María Tapiador.
cast: Richard Roundtree (John Shaft), Frank Finlay (Amafi), Vonetta McGee (Aleme), Neda Arneric (Jazar), Debebe Eshetu (Wassa), Spyros Fokas (Sassari), Jacques Herlin (Perreau), Jho Jhenkins (Ziba), Willie Jonah (Oyo), Adolfo Lastretti (Piro), Marne Maitland (Col. Gondar), Frank McRae (Osiat), Zenebech Tadesse (The Prostitute), Avelio Falana (Ramila’s Son), James E. Myers (Williams), Nadim Sawalha (Zubair), Thomas Baptiste (Kopo), Jon Chevron (Shimba), Glynn Edwards (Vanden), Cy Grant (Emir Ramila), Jacques Marin (Cusset).
In the third movie of the series, John Shaft (Roundtree) is hired to infiltrate a slave smuggling ring sourced in Ethiopia after an Emir’s son’s cover is blown whilst tracking the operation to Paris. The film is well-directed and perhaps the most consistent of the series. The slave trade plot is topical, and the subject is handled well by scriptwriter Silliphant. It just doesn’t feel like creator Ernest Tidyman’s Shaft. The decision to take Shaft out of his New York home turf and turn him into an international trouble-shooter proved to be the death knell for the series in the cinema. The obvious references to James Bond – hidden cameras in fighting sticks, multiple international settings, and villains with no redeeming qualities – were handled with a little wit. The problem was it made the character even more of a cypher for the various action segments designed to show off Roundtree’s athletic moves. As such it robs the character of the core of Tidyman’s creation – the black man who seamlessly operates in a white urban world. Followed by a TV series (1973-4) and then SHAFT (2000).
