Review of In the Heat of the Night (1967) by The-Lords A — 07 May 2013

...I got nuthun for a good intro.

Plot: Mr. Colbert who was a wealthy man from Chicago ends up murdered in Sparta, Mississippi where he was planning to build a factory. While looking for the killer the night he was killed, one of the police officers find an African-American named Virgil Tibbs waiting at the train station with a lot of money and so arrests him as a suspect. Tibbs however turns out to be a homicide detective from Philadelphia, and so his chief tells him during a phone call to help Chief Gillespie in solving the murder. So Tibbs and Gillespie go on an uneasy partnership in finding clues to find out who murdered Colbert.

Okay how do I begin with explaining this movie? It had really well done performances, it took a look at racism on quite a different angle, and it did have a mysterious case that was interesting. And like Driving Miss Daisy, it's the performances that stand out the most. Rod Steiger I can understand to him winning best actor as Chief Gillespie, but I'm surprised Sidney Poitier wasn't even nominated as Virgil Tibbs. Because really he was the real memorable character in the film. I mean heck, he's so good of a character that he even is ranked # 19 on AFI's top Heroes and Villains list. He does just a great job at being such a focus to the story from how he lays it out to when he slaps Endicott. And of coarse he has the most memorable line: "They call me Mister Tibbs!" Yeah, so if you remember the line from The Lion King "They call me Mister Pig!", that's how they came up with that line. So with all that said, why wasn't he even nominated? Part of me thinks maybe they thought other performances were somehow better in the academy's eyes, but part of me also wonders if it has to do with the whole take on racism thing... I don't know how for sure, I'm just thinking as I go along.

And that's my review for In The Heat of the Night. It had a different angle on racism from that time, interesting murder case, and above all, it had performances that was really well done. But fact is fact, while Steiger got the Oscar, that didn't stop Poitier's Virgil Tibbs from being one of the most memorable, heroic characters in the history of film.