Shaft in Africa

Shaft in Africa
Original theatrical release poster by John Solie
Directed by	John Guillermin
Written by	Stirling Silliphant
Starring	Richard Roundtree Frank Finlay Neda Arnerić Vonetta McGee Frank McRae
Edited by	Max Benedict
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	June 14, 1973 (1973-06-14)
Running time	112 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1,395,000 (US/ Canada rentals)

Shaft in Africa is a 1973 film directed by John Guillermin and is the third film in the blaxploitation trilogy of films starring Richard Roundtree as John Shaft. Stirling Silliphant wrote the screenplay. The cost went up to $2,142,000, but the gross fell to $1,458,000. MGM quickly sold the property to television, but the television series was cancelled after just seven episodes.

At home in his New York City apartment, John Shaft is drugged with a tranquilizer dart, then kidnapped and persuaded by threats of physical force, the promise of money, and the lure of a pretty tutor to travel to Africa (much of the movie was filmed in Ethiopia), assuming the identity of a native-speaking itinerant worker. His job is to help break a criminal ring that is smuggling immigrants into Europe then exploiting them. But the villains have heard that he is on his way.

Shaft must pass a test before being hired for the job; the test involves him surviving in a small, overheated room without water, and a floor covered in deep sand, mimicking the supposed conditions of Africa. Shaft ingeniously covers himself with the sand, thereby avoiding heatstroke and winning the contract from his employer. Shaft must then embark upon a mission to infiltrate and destroy a human trafficking and slavery ring in West Africa and France.

Critics gave the film lukewarm reviews.