453. In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Running Time: 110 minutes
Directed By: Norman Jewison
Written By: Stirling Silliphant, from novel by John Ball
Main Cast: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant, Larry Gates
Click here to view the trailer

AND THEY CALL HIM MR. GILLESPIE!

For the concerned, I'll commence with "Godard Week" either later tonight or tomorrow - either way the next movie I watch WILL BE "Contempt". I took today to spend with my wife and with the suggestion of a movie and looking at my list of planned films for the next 17, she picked this one.

The time period is the 60s and the setting is the segregated town of Sparta, Mississippi, where wealthy land developer, Philip Colbert has just been found dead. When police chief Gillespie (Steiger) sends out his boys, most notably, Officer Sam Wood (Oates), Wood returns with a black man in tow, whom he found at the train station and picked up simply because he had a fat wallet. The black man is Virgil Tibbs (Poitier) and when he arrives back in the Chief's office, Gillespie discovers that Virgil is also a police officer, in Philadelphia. It seems that Tibbs was visiting his mother, passing through the area and just happened to be in Sparta when Colbert's body was discovered. When Gillespie calls Tibbs' chief to check his story, the Philly chief suggests that Virgil stick around and give them a hand - after all, he is the lead homicide detective in Philly. Virgil, although not without reluctance, sticks around, giving a healthy dose of Northern justice to very Southern men at the Sparta department. However, the murder mystery is only half the fun, as the very bigoted Gillespie and Virgil Tibbs try their best to work together.

You know, I'm not as up to date as I should be on my Sidney Poitier filmography, but I have to say, right out of the box, that I wasn't very impressed with him here. I had seen "In the Heat of the Night" a few times before and never really noticed it, but in fact, Poitier didn't shine at all, as far as I'm concerned. Well, maybe that's unfair - maybe he was shining, but maybe his star was snuffed out by the magnificent work that was being done opposite him, via Rod Steiger. I'm not sure I've ever seen another Rod Steiger film and even when I watched "In the Heat of the Night", on previous occasions, I never really noticed him, but if you were to cut him out of this picture, you wouldn't have much and you surely wouldn't have a Best Picture winner. In fact, speaking of the Oscars, it's good to see there was a time when they gave Oscars to the right people and rightfully handed the little gold man to Steiger. As for Poitier, he really seemed to be emotionless here. He had the same deep, flat tone throughout the entire movie, no matter what lines he was delivering. Meanwhile, Steiger plays Gillespie perfectly, managing somehow to make you like him, even at his most racist.

As for the everything else, you had a decent enough film, I guess. Like I said, you lose Steiger here and you're not left with much, but you do still have a mildly entertaining crime story. The whole plot is a little too contrived for my tastes, however, with the "homicide expert" Tibbs somehow managing to be passing through the same town where there's just been a murder and in a town where murder isn't commonplace. The rest of the cast is kind of *meh*, with the exception being Warren Oates, who plays a pretty good dimwitted cop. The music worked too, with Ray Charles belting out the title song and "Owl on the Prowl" and "Bowlegged Polly" popping up throughout and fitting right in.

RATING: 7.5/10 We'll call that a review. If this film somehow manages to sneak into the TOP 20, it can thank Rod Steiger.

MOVIES WATCHED: 385
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 616

January 3, 2012 4:45pm