Shaft

     Who's the black private dick who's a sex machine to all the chicks? Damn right, I'm talking about Shaft, John Shaft. Hot on the heels of the popularity of Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, MGM put out Shaft, an adaptation of the first in a series of detective novels by Ernest Tidyman.
     Directed by famed photographer Gordon Parks and written by Tidyman and TV writer John D.F. Black, this movie opened the door for what became known as the Blaxploitation film genre.
     The film made an instant star out of Richard Roundtree who's only previous film work had been the Candid Camera movie, What Do You Say To A Naked Lady? He would go on to play the character in three sequels and a short lived TV series.
     For the uninitiated, the storyline deals with the events that follow the kidnapping of a crime boss' daughter as he hires John Shaft to find out who did it. If you get the chance, you should also read the Tidyman novels, you wont be disappointed.