In the Heat of the Night (1967)

We take it for granted that today's generation of black movie stars like Denzel Washington,  Eddie Murphy, Samuel L. Jackson, Viola Davis, Angela Bassett, and Michael B. Jordan are taking the torch from the greats of the past.  That would be misleading. There is one man that blazed the trail for today's black stars. Sadly, his debut was not that far in the past. That actor would be Sidney Poitier. Due to our country's great racial inequality and prejudice during a good part of the 20th century, black actors and actresses were a rare sight in films of the Golden Age (1930s to early 1950s). When they did appear, they were bit roles as waiters or servants or maids. There was even the awful use of blackface (white actors wearing black makeup to portray a negro) in silent films and some early talkies. Thanks to some socially conscious directors like Richard Brooks, Stanley Kramer, and Norman Jewison, Sidney Poitier emerged on the big screen as Hollywood's first black movie star. 

A native of the Bahamas before moving to Florida at the age of 15, Poitier's acting breakthrough came in Richard Brooks BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955) as a rebellious student at an inner city high school. He would follow that debut with THE DEFIANT ONES (1957) directed by Stanley Kramer and co-starring Tony Curtis. They would play escaped convicts: one white, one black who are chained to each other as they seek freedom. Before you knew it, Poitier would win the Academy Award for Best Actor in Ralph Nelson's LILIES IN THE FIELD (1963) as a handyman who helps a group of nuns build a chapel in the desert. 1967 would be a watershed year for Poitier as he would appear not only in Stanley Kramer's GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? opposite Spencer Tracy (in his last role) and Katherine Hepburn but as a big city police detective stuck in a small Mississippi town with a murder in Norman Jewison's IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT. By today's standards, the two films are fairly tame. At the time, both films dealt with racial barriers that were simmering to the top in the tumultuous 1960s. 

With a screenplay by Stirling Silliphant (THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE) based on the novel by John Ball and directed by Norman Jewison (ROLLERBALL), IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT begins on a humid night in the small southern town of Sparta, Mississippi. It's two in the morning. Officer Sam Wood (Warren Oates) departs the local diner run by Ralph Henshaw (Anthony James) and cruises around the sleepy town on patrol. He stops to voyeuristically watch the local teenage tease Delores Purdy (Quentin Dean) stand naked in her kitchen on the hot evening before moving on. Wood comes across a dead body in the middle of Main Street. Wood reports the death to his superior Sheriff Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger). The dead man is Philip Colbert, an outside developer in Sparta to help build a new factory just outside the town that would provide jobs for the locals. Gillespie sends Wood to scour the town for any vagrants or strangers that might be out at this hour. Wood finds a well-dressed black man named Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) sitting alone at the train station. Without questioning him, Wood brings Virgil directly to the police station.

Gillespie and Wood immediately suspect Virgil just by the color of his skin. Virgil tells them he's a police detective from Philadelphia, PA on his way back to the East Coast after visiting his elderly mother. Gillespie calls Virgil's superior who confirms his occupation and offers Virgil's skills to the Sheriff with the murder investigation. Virgil is a homicide expert. Virgil doesn't want to help the racist Gillespie. Gillespie admits he's not an expert on murder. The next morning, Gillespie's men with dogs chase another suspect Harvey Oberst (Scott Wilson) through the woods and onto a bridge toward Arkansas where he's apprehended. Harvey has Colbert's wallet on him. Harvey is brought back to the station where Mrs. Colbert (Lee Grant) is waiting. Virgil tells Mrs. Colbert her husband is dead. Gillespie is positive Harvey is the killer. Virgil thinks he's innocent. Virgil won't reveal his evidence so Gillespie locks Virgil up along with Harvey. Virgil questions Harvey who says he has an alibi. Virgil believes Colbert was killed elsewhere and his body dropped off in town. Mrs. Colbert demands Virgil work the case or she will pull her husband's engineers off the factory project. 

Tibbs is back at the train station when Gillespie shows up to talk him into staying. Tibbs reluctantly agrees to help on the case. Tibbs inspects Colbert's car. He finds blood and a piece of a plant inside. Tibbs and Gillespie visit the one man who may have been Colbert's enemy. Eric Endicott (Larry Gates) is a cotton grower and the richest man in town who opposed Colbert's factory.  Endicott grows orchids as a hobby. Tibbs and Endicott do not hit it off (they end up slapping each other). Mayor Schubert (William Schallert) puts pressure on Gillespie to run the black detective Tibbs out of town. Endicott sends a car full of young, white men after Tibbs, chasing him to an abandoned warehouse.  Gillespie shows up in the nick of time to rescue Tibbs from a lynching. Tibbs tells Gillespie he just needs two more days to solve the murder. Tibbs asks Officer Wood to retrace his path that night. Wood alters his route, avoiding Delores Purdy's house. Tibbs knows what Wood is doing. Gillespie asks the town banker Henderson (Kermit Murdock) to show him Wood's recent bank transactions. Wood made a recent deposit of $632. Gillespie arrests Wood on suspicion of the murder of Colbert. 

Tibbs still believes Endicott murdered Colbert. Gillespie's now convinced it's his own man Wood. Tibbs tells Gillespie that Wood couldn't have been in two places at one time. The whole situation changes when Lloyd Purdy (James Patterson) brings in his sister Dolores to the station. Dolores claims she's pregnant with Officer Wood's baby. Tibbs walks back to the jail cells and asks Harvey if a guy got a girl pregnant, who would he or she turn to for an abortion? Harvey tells him Packy Harrison (Matt Clark) is the man he wants to talk to. Tibbs travels out to where the new factory is to be built. Gillespie shows up. Tibbs believes Colbert was murdered here. Tibbs had found a piece of pine wood in Colbert's scalp. The lot is full of pine wood stakes. Tibbs and Gillespie go back to Gillespie's house. Packy shows up and tells Tibbs to see a woman named Mama Caleba (Beah Richards). Tibbs goes to Mama's store and asks her who's paying for Dolores's abortion. Dolores shows up at Mama's. When Tibbs steps outside, he's met by the lynch mob again as well as Dolores's angry brother Lloyd. The real father of Dolores's baby and the person who murdered Colbert will also reveal himself. 

Besides figuring out the mystery (and not being misled by its delightful red herrings), the fun with IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is watching Poitier's black Detective Virgil Tibbs and Steiger's white southern Sheriff Jim Gillespie square off against each other. The two men begin as adversaries, divided by race and class. The big city detective versus the small town hick sheriff. The educated Tibbs wants nothing to do with this racist town except to get out of it. Gillespie is a proud man who arrives at the realization that he's in over his head with this high profile murder in his quiet town. Tibbs and Gillespie butt heads over leads and suspects before acknowledging they need each other to solve the case. They go from fighting each other to fighting the elite of Sparta like the wealthy cotton plantation owner Eric Endicott or the mayor. In the end, they overcome their differences and prejudices. Gillespie rescues Tibbs from a possible lynching when Tibbs gets trapped by a mob of young white adults. Tibbs helps Gillespie solve the case.

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT would be just another crime mystery if it wasn't for the race element. Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs is cinema's first black crime solver. Poitier paved the way for future African-American sleuths like Richard Roundtree as private eye John Shaft in Gordon Parks SHAFT (1971) or Denzel Washington as WWII hero turned gumshoe Easy Rawlins in Carl Franklin's THE DEVIL IN THE BLUE DRESS (1995) based on the Walter Mosley novel. We've seen detectives before.  Only this time, the detective is black and educated. What IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT taught audiences in 1967 (during the turbulent Civil Rights movement) was the color of someone's skin did not mean they were different. We're all the same. Mrs. Colbert wants Tibbs to solve her husband's murder because he's the best one for the job. Not because he's black. Tibbs proves Harvey's innocence in the murder, befriending the white small time criminal. It's possible Harvey doesn't like negros. Tibbs cleared Harvey because it was the right thing to do. And if the murderer is white or black, Tibbs will make sure he's arresting the right person regardless of race or skin color. 

Rod Steiger's performance as the gum chewing, biased Sheriff Bill Gillespie is worthy of a Best Actor Academy Award nomination but was it worthy of winning the Best Actor Award? Steiger's competition in 1967 was Warren Beatty in Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE; Paul Newman in Stuart Rosenberg's COOL HAND LUKE; Dustin Hoffman in Mike Nichols THE GRADUATE; and posthumously, Spencer Tracy in GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? Beatty and Hoffman were probably too young to win yet. Tracy would have been a sentimental vote. For CRAZYFILMGUY, Paul Newman's performance is far and away the best. Regardless, Steiger came out on top that night.

Steiger's Gillespie is three dimensional in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.  He makes Gillespie human not a stereotypical lawman from below the Mason-Dixon line like we expect. The interaction between the white Gillespie and the black Tibbs is dynamic. Gillespie throws Tibbs in jail, tries to run him out of town not once but twice only to realize Tibbs is the best man to solve the murder case regardless of the color of his skin. When Gillespie invites Tibbs to his house, it's a major decision for the sheriff. We realize that beyond all his bluster that Gillespie is a lonely man. He probably doesn't have many friends. His job as the sheriff of Sparta is his life. Steiger's win as Best Actor for IN THE HEAT OF THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT showcases what a chameleon of an actor Steiger was. Steiger played a Jewish New Yorker in Sidney Lumet's THE PAWNBROKER (1964), a Russian businessman in David Lean's DR. ZHIVAGO (1965), and a Mexican outlaw in Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE (1971) also known as DUCK, YOU SUCKER! My favorite Steiger role is in Elia Kazan's ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) as Marlon Brando's older brother Charley Malloy.

Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs is intense in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT as a man who just wants to get out of this town that has mistreated him since the moment he sat in their train depot waiting for the next train. Tibbs sense of duty as a police officer gets the better of him. Tibbs relishes the opportunity to solve the murder as a black man in this mostly white town. The success of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT would lead to a sequel with Poitier reprising his role as Tibbs in Gordon Douglas's THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS! (1970) playing off IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT'S most famous line spoken by Poitier. Poitier would take a break from acting (partially) and turn to directing films far from the dramas he appeared in with films like the western BUCK AND THE PREACHER (1972) co-starring Harry Belafonte, the urban crime comedy UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT (1974) with Belafonte and Bill Cosby, and the buddy comedy STIR CRAZY (1980) with the unlikely duo of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. Poitier would appear in Phil Alden Robinson's ensemble comedy thriller SNEAKERS (1992) with Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, and Ben Kingsley. 

Warren Oates made a living early in his career playing humorously dim-witted characters like Officer Wood in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT or Lyle Gorch in Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH (1969). I first came across Oates as a white collar insurance investigator trying to catch jewel thief Ryan O'Neal in Bud Yorkin's THE THIEF WHO CAME TO DINNER (1973) co-starring Jacqueline Bisset. It was the movie on my flight to and back from Portland, OR to Maui. I watched it both times. Oates's Wood is never menacing or violent toward Virgil Tibbs. He's a racist version of Barney Fife. We're never quite sure what's going on in Wood's  head. Is he capable of murder or impregnating the teenager  Dolores? A newer audience would discover Oates when he appeared in Ivan Reitman's comedy STRIPES (1981) as Sgt. Hulka.

Actress Lee Grant is under used in a small but pivotal role as Mrs. Colburn, the wife of the murdered developer. Her importance in her brief scenes in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is recognizing that the only person who's going to solve her husband's murder is not the redneck cops of Sparta but a black detective. Grant would have bigger roles in films like Hal Ashby's SHAMPOO (1975) with Warren Beatty, Stuart Rosenberg's VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED (1976), and Don Taylor's DAMIEN: OMEN II (1978) co-starring William Holden. IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is peppered with many supporting actors I would get to know watching television in the 70s including William Schallert (INNERSPACE), Matt Clark (THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES), and Anthony James (HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER). IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT would be Scott Wilson's debut film.  Wilson who plays Harvey Oberst in the film would so impress Poitier that he recommended Wilson to director Richard Brooks for his next film IN COLD BLOOD (also 1967). 

Another contributor to IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT'S success and winning the Academy Award for Best Picture are the artisans who worked on the film. Cinematographer Haskell Wexler (ONE FLEW OVER THE CUKOO'S NEST) was one of the first cameramen to tone down the lighting on actors with dark skin, producing less glare, providing a more realistic, less harsh look. IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT film editor Hal Ashby would graduate to becoming an acclaimed director. Ashby films include HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971), SHAMPOO, COMING  HOME (1978) with Jon Voight and Jane Fonda (with Wexler as cinematographer), and BEING THERE (1979) with Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine. Director Norman Jewison's commitment to more diversity in film included legendary music producer Quincy Jones (THE COLOR PURPLE) as composer of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and musician Ray Charles singing the film's theme song In the Heat of the Night.  Both Jones and Charles were black.

Director Jewison had a diverse career delving into different genres like the caper film in THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968) with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, the musical with FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (1970) and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (1973); science-fiction in ROLLERBALL (1975) with James Caan, and the romantic comedy in MOONSTRUCK (1987) starring Cher and Nicholas Cage.  Jewison would return to racial themes amidst a World War II military drama in A SOLDIER'S STORY (1984) with a primarily black cast including Howard E. Rollins, Jr., Adolph Caesar, Robert Townsend, and a young Denzel Washington. The strength of the two protagonists in Jewison's IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT would lead to a hit television of the same name starring Carroll O'Connor (TVs ALL IN THE FAMILY) as Sheriff Gillespie and Howard E. Rollins, Jr (RAGTIME) as Detective Virgil Tibbs. The TV series ran on NBC for an incredible 7 years from 1988-1995. 

Although a seminal film as the United States came to terms with its race issues in the 1967, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT'S good will did not happen overnight.  In fact, the film was made in Sparta, Illinois rather than Mississippi for the safety of Sidney Poitier.  Some of the America public was not ready for a black movie star. When the crew did film a small portion in Tennessee, Poitier received death threats from anonymous sources. IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is a subtle film. At its core, it's a intriguing murder mystery. Underneath its surface, it's a microcosm of America's struggle with equality and race relations.  Social issues have always been important to the Academy Awards and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT came out at the right place and right time as America churned toward the watershed year of 1968.