JOHN GUILLERMIN DIRECTS RICHARD ROUNDTREE 'SHAFT IN AFRICA'

Richard Roundtree from SHAFT IN AFRICA Year: 1973 Rates: ***1/2

Director John Guillermin's SHAFT IN AFRICA is such a deliberate espionage/spy flick, at one point the title character... who originated on paper before being adapted into one of the first blaxploitation heroes... is told to (after he actually references James Bond) burn his mission after reading...

To pose as an African in Africa to be taken into a European slave-trade, which sounds more complicated than it really is... as this final SHAFT sequel's basically one handed-off desert-traipsing adventure sequence after another...

From SHAFT IN AFRICA

The soundtrack's gone from Isaac Hayes' groundbreaking/Oscar-winning theme into what sounds like any TV-cop show's funky wah-wah peddle score that Hayes inspired, this time backing Shaft's action more than the man himself...

With a friendly (and completely pointless) canine sidekick and an affable human bodyguard quickly murdered... leading to sporadic Shaft-girls in Frank Finlay's sexed-up white moll Neda Arneric and gorgeous/sophisticated black lady Vonetta McGee... SHAFT IN AFRICA provides Roundtree an almost completely solo vehicle that (despite the sometimes unnecessary cruelty) goes in one continent and out the other.

Richard Roundtree & Vonetta McGee from SHAFT IN AFRICA with Frank McCrea

Richard Roundtree & Vonetta McGee from SHAFT IN AFRICA

Frank Finlay & Neda Arneric from SHAFT IN AFRICA

Richard Roundtree & Neda Arneric from SHAFT IN AFRICA

Richard Roundtree & Neda Arneric from SHAFT IN AFRICA

Neda Arneric from SHAFT IN AFRICA

Richard Roundtree & Neda Arneric from SHAFT IN AFRICA

Richard Roundtree from SHAFT IN AFRICA

Richard Roundtree & Neda Arneric from SHAFT IN AFRICA