In the Heat of the Night

Sidney Poitier Director: Norman Jewison Norman Jewison

Overview

The winner of the 1967 Oscar for Best Picture (as well as four other Oscars), In the Heat of the Night is set in a small Mississippi town where an unusual murder has been committed. Rod Steiger plays sheriff Bill Gillespie, a good lawman despite his racial prejudices. When Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), a well-dressed northern African-American, comes to town, Gillespie instinctively puts him under arrest as a murder suspect. Tibbs reveals himself to be a Philadelphia police detective; after he and Gillespie come to a grudging understanding of one another, Tibbs offers to help in Gillespie's investigation. As the case progresses, both Gillespie and Tibbs betray a tendency to jump to culture-dictated conclusions. Still, the case is solved thanks to the informal teamwork of the two law officers. Based on the novel by John Ball, In the Heat of the Night inspired two sequels, both starring Poiter as Virgil Tibbs. In 1987, a TV series version of In the Heat of the Night appeared, with Carroll O'Connor as Gillespie and Howard Rollins as Tibbs.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/29/2019
UPC:	0715515225113
Original Release:	1967
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen, Color]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Time:	1:50:00
Sales rank:	2,512

Special Features

New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; New interviews with director Norman Jewison and actor Lee Grant; Segment from a 2006 American Film Institute interview with actor Sidney Poitier; New interview with Aram Goudsouzian, author of Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon; Audio commentary from 2008 featuring Jewison, Grant, actor Rod Steiger, and cinematographer Haskell Wexler; Turning Up the Heat: Movie-Making in the '60s, a 2008 program about the production of the film and its legacy, featuring Jewison, producer Walter Mirisch, and filmmakers John Singleton and Reginald Hudlin; Quincy Jones: Breaking New Sound, a 2008 program about Jones's innovative soundtrack, including the title song sung by Ray Charles, featuring interviews with Jones, lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and musician Herbie Hancock; Trailer; Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Sidney Poitier	Virgil Tibbs
Rod Steiger	Police Chief Bill Gillespie
Warren Oates	Deputy Sam Wood
Lee Grant	Mrs. Leslie Colbert
James Patterson	Purdy
Scott Wilson	Harvey Oberst
Quentin Dean	Delores Purdy
Larry Gates	Eric Endicott
Beah Richards	Mama Caleba
William Schallert	Mayor Schubert
Matt Clark	Packy Harrison
Anthony James	Ralph Henshaw
Kermit Murdock	H.E. Henderson
Khalil Bezaleel	Jess
Peter Whitney	George Courtney
William Watson	McNeil
Timothy Scott	Shagbag Martin
Larry D. Mann	Watkins
Stuart Nisbet	Shuie
Eldon Quick	Charlie Hawthorne
Fred Stewart	Dr. Stuart
Arthur Malet	Ted Ulam
Peter Masterson	Arnold Fryer
Alan Oppenheimer	Ted Appleton
Phil Garris	Engineer
Jester Hairston	Butler
Clegg Hoyt	Deputy
Phil Adams	1st Tough
Nikita Knatz	2nd Tough
Buzz Barton	Conductor
Jack Teter	Philip Colbert
Sammy Reese	Clerk
Ray Charles	Singer

Technical Credits

Stirling Silliphant

Norman Jewison	Director
Del Armstrong	Makeup
Hal Ashby	Editor
Alan Bergman	Songwriter
Marilyn Bergman	Songwriter
Paul Groesse	Art Director
Milt Hamerman	Casting
Quincy Jones	Score Composer,Songwriter
Alan Levine	Costumes/Costume Designer
Walter Mirisch	Producer
Robert Priestley	Set Decoration/Design
James A. Richard	Sound Editor
Stirling Silliphant	Screenwriter
Lynn Stalmaster	Casting
Haskell Wexler	Cinematographer

Editorial Reviews

Norman Jewison's In The Heat of the Night was one of the unlikeliest hits to come out of 1967. Few issues were more provocative or dangerous to discuss in private, much less on screen, than race relations in the United States, and that went double for the Deep South, where the movie (based on John Ball's book) was set. Additionally, the country didn't seem to be clamoring for that kind of discussion: to this day, Roger Corman's The Intruder (1961) is the only theatrical film ever made about school integration in the South. Jewison defied every piece of industry wisdom and won out, mostly because he played it straight and honest, with a cast led by two actors who could hardly have been improved upon for the parts they played. The thematic set-up was surprisingly similar to The Defiant Ones, in which Poitier had co-starred for Stanley Kramer nine years earlier, but the directorial touch was smoother and the film was filled with an enviable range of wonderful supporting performances. In The Heat of the Night was successful enough to generate a brace of films that tried for the same mix of topicality and drama (as well as two sequels, They Call Me Mister Tibbs and The Organization that were more action-oriented), among them William Wyler's The Liberation of L.B. Jones (which came from the same screenwriter), Lamont Johnson's made-for-television My Sweet Charlie, and Ralph Nelson's Tick Tick Tick, all of which opened race relations to more honest and straightforward cinematic exploration.

All Movie Guide - Bruce Eder