Shaft in Africa

Third of the Shaft films (followed by a TV series), this one spreading itself pretty thinly over three continents, with Shaft versus slave-trader Frank Finlay. The uptown private eye of the first film makes it into the big league caper and goes international, probably at the demand of the producers. The wisecracks are still dutifully tripped out, and Shaft himself is obliged to fill the gaps between the action by furnishing the myth of black potency. It's surprising that Roundtree, like Connery in the Bond films (and the similarities between the two series don't end there, in spite of Shaft's protests that he's no James Bond), manages to conduct himself with some dignity through all the surrounding debris.