Review of They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970) by Byron B — 17 Oct 2009

I enjoyed Martin Landau's supporting role. I appreciate the social improvement project that he is trying to push forward. In this sequel to In the Heat of the Night, Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs returns home to San Francisco to solve a murder.

I think the main reason these sequels weren't as critically acclaimed or as popular is because Tibbs was removed from the high tension setting of the south. Race drove most of the drama and success of In the Heat of the Night.

Poitier still gives a solid performance, but now the focus is more on his family and the sparsely developed mystery. We get to see an upper middle class black family (wife/mother, son, daughter, and father who isn't around much because of his work).

There are other black police officers and detectives, and hardly anyone expresses any resentment that Tibbs holds a prominent law enforcement position. It's all very comfortable. There are several red herrings in the mystery plot in order to slip in some foot and car chases.

So the filmmakers try to replace the tense drama with action sequences. The dilemma Tibbs faces when he figures out who the murderer is helps deepen his character, but the ending is too convenient. Abrupt eye for an eye justice that is a slap in the face to Tibbs' ideal that justice is served in the courts wraps up this movie.