In the Heat of the Night

In the Heat of the Night.
1967 The Mirisch Corporation & United Artists; owned and distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant, Larry Gates, James Patterson
Director: Norman Jewison
Available at Amazon.

The movie that gave the world the immortal line of dialogue "They call me Mister Tibbs!"

A wealthy man comes to Sparta, Mississippi intending to build a factory, but he's instead found murdered in a gutter. Local police chief Bill Gillespie (Steiger) finds himself under pressure to find the man's killer quickly. That same night, a northerner named Virgil Tibbs (Poitier), who is simply passing through town after visiting his mother, is brought into the station from the train depot with a lot of cash on him. Chief Gillespie is very prejudiced against blacks, and jumps to a conclusion that he has his man, only to find himself greatly embarrassed to learn that Tibbs is a respected homicide detective from Philadelphia.

Tibbs is justifiably upset at his treatment, and he wants nothing more but to leave town immediately. Gillespie requests that he stay and help. The victim's widow (Grant) is impressed after Tibbs clears a wrongly accused suspect of the murder, although she does threaten to halt construction on the much-needed factory unless Tibbs leads the investigation. Tibbs and Gillespie don't always see eye-to-eye at the beginning, but they come to respect one another as they work to solve the crime.

At one point, Tibbs and Gillespie visit the home of Eric Endicott (Gates) to question him, after Tibbs finds trace evidence in the victim's car. Endicott slaps Tibbs, and the detective returns favor. The scene was not originally in the script, and it also wasn't in the novel by John Ball, but Poitier requested to the producers that his character be allowed to slap Endicott in return. Poitier was not comfortable with the original scripted reaction for Tibbs, as it was not true to the values his parents instilled in him.

In the Heat of the Night won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Best Actor for Rod Steiger. It is unfortunate that Sidney Poitier did not receive a nomination, though (he did receive nominations for BAFTA's Award for Best Foreign Actor, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actor, Drama). Highly, highly recommended movie!