Richard Roundtree was a popular Ebony Magazine model and he caused many a moviegoing female to swoon as the macho fashion-plate New York detective John Shaft. Superbly directed by Gordon Parks (who makes a Hitchcockian onscreen appearance), Shaft was one of the seminal black dramas of the 1970s and is notable for its mesmerizing Oscar-winning Isaac Hayes score (embellished by Hayes's trademark wah-wah guitar and thumping bass lines), seamless action sequences, the uniformly fine acting of the film's ensemble, and an absorbing script about the Mafia abduction of a Harlem mob boss's daughter. Roundtree surprised the critics with his complex portrayal of the confident black private eye, capable of holding his own with a white police detective (skillfully played Charles Cioffi), or going eyeball-to-eyeball with formidable Harlem underworld king Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn) over how to rescue his kidnapped daughter.-Doris Worsham