Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?

The Rio Theatre's Friday Late Night Movie series continues on February 2 with a screening of Gordon Parks' iconic 1971 urban crime drama SHAFT. Featuring the late, great Richard Roundtree (who passed away in 2023) as the eponymous detective in a performance that launched a

The mob wants Harlem back. But they're gonna get Shaft. Richard Roundtree stars as New York City private detective John Shaft. He's cool, tough and won't back down to anybody. But when the New York Mafia wants to take over the Harlem drug trade, they kidnap local crime lord Bumpy Jonas' (Moses Gunn) daughter. Now in the middle of a war between mobsters that's ready to ignite a racial tinderbox, Jonas hires the one man tough enough to get his daughter back--John Shaft. Academy Award for Best Original Song (Isaac Hayes)

"Quintessential blaxploitation that launched a thousand imitators, Gordon Parks’s Shaft is much more than a rollicking crowd-pleaser, as it’s also a snapshot of a bygone era." (Slant Magazine)

"Forty years of gumshoe noir collided with black power in this 1971 action classic, the most popular of the blaxploitation pictures." (Chicago Reader)

Friday, February 2
Doors 11:00 pm | Movie 11:30 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time.

Late Night Date Night! Bring your best complicated friend, a cat who won't cop out when there's danger all about, or maybe even a bad motherf - shut your mouth(!) - and get two-for-one entry HERE (You're daaaamn right)

SHAFT (Gordon Parks, 1971 / 100 mins / 18A) John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) is the ultimate in suave black detectives. He first finds himself up against Bumpy (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.