Shaft in Africa (1973)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

John Guillermin

Writers:

Ernest Tidyman (characters)
Stirling Silliphant (written by)

Release Date:

14 June 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Adventure

Tagline:

THE Brother Man in the Motherland.

Plot:

P.I. John Shaft is recruited to go undercover to break up a modern slavery ring where young Africans are lured to Paris to do chain-gang work.

Plot Keywords:

Slavery | Paris | Bodyguard | Limousine | Bus Ride

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Richard Roundtree	...	John Shaft
Frank Finlay	...	Amafi
Vonetta McGee	...	Aleme
Neda Arneric	...	Jazar
Debebe Eshetu	...	Wassa
Spiros Focás	...	Sassari (as Spiros Focas)
Jacques Herlin	...	Perreau
Jho Jhenkins	...	Ziba
Willie Jonah	...	Oyo
Adolfo Lastretti	...	Piro
Marne Maitland	...	Col. Gonder
Frank McRae	...	Oziot
Zenebech Tadesse	...	The Prostitute
A.V. 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
Nick Zaran	...	Sadi
Aldo Sambrell	...	Angelo

Directed by
John Guillermin

Writing credits
Ernest Tidyman		(characters)
Stirling Silliphant		(written by)

Produced by
René Dupont	....	associate producer (as Rene Dupont)
Roger Lewis	....	producer

Original Music by
Johnny Pate

Cinematography by
Marcel Grignon		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Max Benedict

Casting by
Irene Howard
Jose Villaverde

Production Design by
John Stoll

Art Direction by
José María Tapiador		(as Jose Maria Tapiador)

Makeup Department
Mariano García Rey	....	makeup artist (as Mariano Garcia Rey)

Production Management
Donald C. Klune	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Miguel Gil	....	assistant director (as Miguel Angel Gil Jr.)
David Tomblin	....	second unit director

Art Department
Benjamín Fernández	....	assistant art director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Peter Sutton	....	sound
Hal Watkins	....	sound

Special Effects by
Antonio Molina	....	special effects

Stunts
Miguel Pedregosa	....	stunt coordinator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Frank Balchus	....	wardrober

Music Department
Johnny Pate	....	conductor
William Saracino	....	music editor

Other crew
Horace Jenkins	....	script advisor
Takauki Kubota	....	stick fight stager

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
• Shaft Productions Ltd.

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1973) (USA) (theatrical)
• MGM-EMI (1973) (UK) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Living Colour Entertainment (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1996) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Turner Entertainment  package design (1996 video release)

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Finland:K-16 (cut) | Finland:K-18 (uncut) | UK:X (original rating) | Iceland:16 | West Germany:18 | Australia:R | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Norway:16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Goofs:

Continuity: Shortly before he boards the ship for France, Shaft is involved in a fight in which his right hand is severely bitten by his opponent, drawing quite a bit of blood. Yet when he boards the ship, his right hand is completely wound free.

Quotes:

Shaft: Now wait a minute. Now I'm not James Bond. Simply Sam Spade.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 4 (1997) (V)

Soundtrack:

Are You Man Enough?

The slippery slide continues....

I am a huge fan of the original film in this series, SHAFT--having scored it an 8 and enjoyed every minute of it. Unfortunately, the sequels (SHAFT'S BIG SCORE and SHAFT IN Africa) were major disappointments--mostly due to really bad writing and lots of ridiculous story elements. In SHAFT'S BIG SCORE, Shaft has a gun battle with about a dozen crooks. They have a machine gun and tons of pistols as well as a helicopter. Shaft has a shotgun and a pistol and manages not only to win but shoot down the copter!!! Sadly, it only got worse in SHAFT IN Africa.

The main plot idea isn't bad. A group of concerned officials want to infiltrate an evil mob that sneaks illegal workers from Africa into Europe and treats them like slaves. A timely topic now as well as then. However, having Shaft be the guy to infiltrate was just silly. While the film was set in East Africa, Shaft looks little like one of these people--mostly because almost all Black-Americans trace their ancestry back to West Africa--on the other side of the continent. In addition, he didn't really try to use an appropriate accent throughout the film--only once or twice--and he didn't shave or cut his hair to blend in with the slaves. He simply looked like "Richard Roundtree: Movie Star" amidst the poor unfortunate villagers. Unfortunately, about the only thing going for the film is the action and extreme violence (for 1973). Sadly, even the great tune "Shaft" was gone and the music was rather bland throughout the film!

By the way, although it looked cool, why did Shaft bother to blow up the bunker at the end of the film even though the bad guy and all his men were dead?! It just seemed like a silly excuse for pyrotechnics.