Richard Roundtree and Moses Gunn returned in the sequel to the huge blockbuster Shaft (1971), which kicked off the early 1970s blaxploitation craze – and later inspired the Quentin Tarantino release Jackie Brown (1997).
Private eye John Shaft is in pursuit of the gang members who murdered his undertaker friend Cal Asby (Robert Kya-Hill), who had hidden $250,000 of underworld money in a coffin in Harlem.
Here, the private-eye hero acts more like a hip James Bond than a retro Sam Spade, in a routine social conscience tale that finds him avenging the murder while retrieving money stolen by warring gangsters.
The New York harbour ending is memorably exciting.
John Shaft
Richard Roundtree
Bumpy Jonas
Moses Gunn
Willy
Drew Bundini Brown
Gus Mascola
Joseph Mascolo
Rita
Kathy Imrie
Kelly
Wally Taylor
Captain Bollin
Julius Harris
Arna Asby
Rosalind Miles
Pascal
Joe Santos
Al
Angelo Nazzo
Johnson
Don Blakely
Junior Gillis
Melvin Green Jr
Cal Asby
Robert Kya-Hill
Director
Gordon Parks
