Vitals

Richard Roundtree as John Shaft, tough private detective

Ethiopia to Paris, Winter 1972

Film: Shaft in Africa
Release Date: June 20, 1973
Director: John Guillermin
Wardrobe Credit: Frank Balchus

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Who’s the cat that won’t cop out when there’s danger all about? Shaft! (Right on.)

The groundbreaking role of private investigator John Shaft was originated across three films in the early 1970s by Richard Roundtree, who died three years ago today on October 24, 2023. After successful back-to-back installments set in Shaft’s native New York City, the character crossed the ocean for the bluntly titled 1973 sequel Shaft in Africa. Unlike the previous two films, Shaft in Africa was a box office bomb that resulted in the property beign moved to television for a short-lived series. It would be more than a quarter century until Roundtree reprised the role in two more films, both titled Shaft, released in 2000 and 2019.

Shaft’s titular African adventure was filmed on location in Ethiopia, where he infiltrates a human trafficking ring that exploits Africans for cheap labor. Aboard a smuggler’s boat sailing for Paris, Shaft allows himself to be seduced by the kingpin’s girlfriend Jazar (Neda Arnerić)—in turn switching her allegiance.

Jazar: How long is your phallus, Mr. Shaft?
Shaft: My what?
Jazar: Your cock.
Shaft: Baby, by now, it shrunk down to 20 inches.

Unfortunately, Jazar is murdered when the captain catches the pair trying to escape. Shaft lowers her away in the motor launch and rejoins the rest of the smuggled laborers in the cargo hold en route Paris, where the final act unfolds as Shaft follows clues to confront the smuggling kingpin Vincent Amafi (Frank Finlay) at Château Monfort.

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What’d He Wear?

As Colonel Gonder (Marne Maitland) anticipated, Shaft is issued “Western work clothes” after allowing himself to be trafficked into Amafi’s labor-smuggling operation. At sea, this means a hardy light-blue denim shirt-jacket with four patch pockets, each defined by a straight open top and pointed botom.

Combined with the heft and cut of the cloth, the larger pair of these pockets positioned over the hips firmly place this piece in shirt-jacket territory, meant to be worn untucked. Five white buttons fasten through wide, horizontal buttonholes up the front, though Shaft initially leaves the top few undone while the soft, ’70s-informed point collar wrinkles flat at the neck. The sleeves are presumably also finished with button-fastened cuffs, though Shaft always wears these undone and rolled up his forearms.

Given that the smugglers intend Shaft to work among their laborers, it echoes denim’s workwear heritage that he doubles down on this sturdy twill-woven cloth by sporting a pair of mid-indigo mid-weight denim jeans through the final act. They reflect the conventional five-pocket design—two patch-style back pockets, two curved-entry front pockets, and a watch/coin pocket inset on the right side—though they lack any apparent labels, stitchwork, or other branding signatures that could identify their maker.

He holds them up with a broad, glossy black leather belt that closes through a large squared silver-toned single-prong buckle.

Colonel Gonder had provided the brown leather-strapped fisherman sandals that he continues wearing aboard the Assab with his double denim. These are constructed with broad leather straps over the instep and held in place with a narrower strap behind each heel that closes through a brass-toned single-prong squared buckle.

Upon arriving in Paris, Shaft has swapped the shirt-jacket for a shirt and jacket. The long-sleeved work-shirt is a richer shade of blue, made from a lighter-weight chambray cotton. He wears it tucked into his jeans with the sky-blue plastic buttons fastened fully up the plain front to the neck, where a soft spread collar crinkles under the jacket. It definitely has barrel cuffs that he keeps buttoned and likely also a set of patch-style chest pockets, typical of chambray work-shirts.

Shaft’s “jacket” in Paris is actually the detachable liner introduced by the U.S. Army during World War II as an insulating layer for the M-1943 field jacket. The olive-drab cotton poplin shell is the same OD#7 used on the contemporary uniform, lined in a woolen pile and finished with a khaki ribbed-knit wool collar and cuffs not unlike later MA-1 bomber jackets. Given that these were meant to be worn in freezing conditions where gloved personnel would suffer limited dexterity (and also likely informed by the difficulty of sewing through pile), the six large drab plastic buttons up the front were paired with corded loops rather than conventional buttonholes. These also have two slash pockets over the hips—a unique addition for a mere liner that, combined with the sturdy outer shell, made them popularly worn on their own even without a field jacket. (You can read more about M-43 field jacket liners at At the Front.)

These liners were first authorized as the “Jacket, Field, Pile, O.D.”, spec number 368A, in the summer of 1943, followed by the spec 368B update in May 1944. The latter initially covered the pile lining with a layer of khaki (OD#3) cotton twill until this interlining was dropped for later wartime production runs. After World War II, the pile lining was again covered with an interlining that was now produced from a synthetic nylon or rayon fabric. Shaft’s exposed pile suggests a legitimate World War II-era M-43 field jacket liner.

Shaft understandably swaps the sandals for dusty black leather derby-laced boots by the time he reaches Paris, worn with plain white socks. These plain-toe chukka boots have black laces and flat leather soles.

The only part of Shaft’s original wardrobe that he continues wearing through this sequence is his bold silver-toned statement ring, consisting of four cast-metal finger-like bands curled around his left ring finger.

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The Guns

Colonel Gonder had warned Shaft against the dangers of being caught with a pistol, though he still commandeers a suppressed Luger from one of the assassins who tried to kill him in Ethiopia and handles this throughout the final act. With its distinctive profile and toggle-locked mechanism, the Luger remains one of the most recognizable handguns of all time—even among non-firearms enthusiasts. It was patented by Georg Luger at the turn of the 20th century and quickly found use as a military and police pistol in many European nations, most famously in German holsters during World War I and World War II.

The pistol was initially chambered in the increasingly unpopular 7.65x21mm Parabellum (.30 Luger) before Georg Luger designed the larger 9x19mm Parabellum that far surpassed its all-but-obsolete predecessor to remain one of the most influential and popular handgun rounds more than a century later.

Shaft seizes a second World War II-era firearm while storming Amafi’s Paris home, upping his firepower with a Star Model Z-45 submachine gun. Spanish firm Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. derived the design from the familiar German MP40 submachine gun, albeit with changes considered by some to be improvements like a detachable barrel in a perforated jacket and a progressive trigger to fire both semi-automatic and fully automatic (as opposed to the fully automatic MP40.) Less operational but still of note, the Star Z-45 incorporates wooden side plates and grip panels for a more sophisticated appearance than the all-blackened MP40.

The standard cartridge was the 9x23mm Largo in use by the Spanish military for much of the 20th century and thus necessitating a fluted chamber to ease extraction. Versions in 9x19mm Parabellum, .38 Super, and .45 ACP were also manufactured through its 1942 to 1945 production timeline. The Z-45 typically fed from a 30-round box magazine (two rounds shy of the MP40’s 32-round magazine), though 10-round magazines were also available for users requiring more portability.

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How to Get the Look

Shaft models a work uniform convertible for both land and sea, centered around a classic blue work-shirt and jeans with the situation and climate dictating whether he sports it coolly with mere sandals or more bundled with a pile-backed field jacket liner and boots.

• Olive-drab cotton poplin “Jacket, Field, Pile, O.D.” M-43 field jacket liner with khaki ribbed-knit collar and cuffs, six loop-button front, and two slash pockets
• Blue denim five-button shirt-jacket with wide flat collar, four patch pockets, and button cuffs
• Blue chambray long-sleeved work-shirt with spread collar, two chest pockets, plain button-up front, and button cuffs
• Mid-indigo denim five-pocket jeans
• Wide black leather belt with silver-toned squared single-prong buckle
• Black leather plain-toe derby-laced chukka boots
• White socks
• Brown leather-strapped fisherman sandals with brass-toned single-prong buckled heel strap
• Silver four-banded statement ring

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

Fuck the law.