SHAFT ('71) Richard Rountree as Private Eye and 50 similar items

Vintage original 27x41 in. US one-sheet poster from the classic 1970's action/crime thriller, SHAFT, released in 1971 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and directed by Gordon Parks. John Shaft (Richard Rountree) is the ultimate in suave black detectives. He first finds himself up against Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn), the leader of the Black crime mob, then against Black nationals, and finally working with both against the White Mafia, who are trying to blackmail Bumpy by kidnapping his daughter. The image on this original release one-sheet poster is one of the more recognizable movie poster images from the 1970's. It depicts Richard Rountree as John Shaft, bearing all-black leather as he shoots a gun. The film's title is rendered in large three-dimensional letter in purple beneath him. This poster was printed on both a flat and semi-glossy paper stock, and this example is printed on the flat stock, which does not have any National Screen Service credits in very small print in the bottom border (as does the semi-glossy style). Unrestored and folded as originally issued, it is in good- condition only with areas of paper loss along the edge of the bottom left panel; multiple pinholes in the corners with a small hole in three of the four corners from, presumably, when a theater employee pulled the poster down without removing the thumbtacks; and bleed-through in the bottom left panel from the machine printing on the back and from a red marker and black grease pencil. Shaft was one of only three films MGM released in 1971 that made a profit, and it helped save the studio from bankruptcy. Moses Gunn's character, Bumpy Jonas, is based on Bumpy Johnson, an African-American mobster in the 1930's. Isaac Hayes auditioned for the title role, but the producers cast Richard Roundtree instead. However, they were so impressed with Hayes that they asked him to write the now legendary score to the film. Hayes the became the first African-American to win the Academy Award for "Best Song." The background singers in the film's theme song are Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson from Tony Orlando Dawn. Shaft was rumored to be written as just another detective movie, with a white detective in the lead, but, after the success of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), the film was rewritten and recast as a blaxploitation movie. This story has been told several times by director Melvin Van Peebles. However, it is probably apocryphal. The Ernest TJidyman novel which was the basis for the film is about a black detective and not a white one. Furthermore, Shaft began filming in January, 1971 - months before Van Peebles' film was released in April. Much of the action centers around 125th Street in Harlem. The exterior of Shaft's apartment was at 55 Jane Street in Greenwich Village, across the street from the (real) "No Name Bar" at 621 Hudson Street. The bar later became a deli.