Continuity mistake: At the beginning, Shaft is crossing the street and a taxi jumps around between cuts. In the overhead shot, he passes the taxi and walks in front of a taxi, but in the level shot, he is in front of a brown car and giving it the finger.
Continuity mistake: At the very beginning of the scene when Shaft is visiting Bumpy with Ben, Willy is playing solitaire. The very first transition between shots happens when Willy flips a card and lays it on the table, but the position of all the cards on said table have changed. (00:49:00)
Continuity mistake: Shaft gets tipped by an informant about his case. He says "Stay loose, baby!" and gives him a raised fist salute walking away. But in the next shot he's still awkwardly giving him another raised fist, which then turns into a high-five. (00:30:45)
Continuity mistake: When Shaft accepts Bumpy's case, Bumpy tosses the envelope on the desk and it lands on top of Shaft's playing cards. When Bumpy gets up, the envelope suddenly changes position. (00:26:15)
Continuity mistake: When the gangster with the plaid coat is strangling Shaft, the supposedly first-person shot shows him with his thumbs all the way up as if he were crushing his temples in a head vice - he is instead choking him, thumbs under the chin. (00:11:00)
Continuity mistake: During the brawl in his office, Shaft sends the plaid coated man flying all over the table to the left of the window, right where there's a white paper bag. A moment later in the fight, that flimsy paper bag is still where it was, totally uncrushed by his butt. (00:10:40)
Continuity mistake: A fight happens inside Shaft's office: a shattered glass noise can be heard, but the door is intact. That is, until the fight is over and the plaid coat man flies off the window. At that point the front door glass is shattered as well. Moreso, a shattered glass noise is heard when someone ends up against the wall, but the frames don't appear broken at any point. (00:10:35 - 00:11:10)
Continuity mistake: Shaft gets approached during the credits by some bootlegger trying to sell him a watch. He flashes him a badge, which is held differently in closeup (finger up) compared to the full shot (just cupped in his palm). (00:02:30)
Continuity mistake: During Bumpy's visit to Shaft's office, the crime boss is sometimes wearing his hat with the buckle on the left, other times with the buckle on the opposite side. (00:19:20 - 00:26:30)
