Plot.
Poster of In the Heat of the Night

In the Heat of the Night

1967 · Film · 109 min

  • Crime
  • Drama
  • Mystery

Plot

African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.

About In the Heat of the Night

In the Heat of the Night is a 1967 American Southern Gothic mystery-drama film directed by Norman Jewison, produced by Walter Mirisch, and starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. It tells the story of Virgil Tibbs (Poitier), a black police detective from Philadelphia, who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation in a small town in Mississippi. The film was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from John Ball's 1965 novel of the same name. Released by United Artists in August 1967, the film was a widespread critical and commercial success. At the 40th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for seven Oscars, winning five, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for Rod Steiger. Quincy Jones' score, featuring a title song performed by Ray Charles, was nominated for a Grammy Award. The success of the film spawned two film sequels featuring Poitier, and a television series of the same name, which aired from 1988 to 1995. In the Heat of the Night is widely considered one of the most important American films of the 1960s. The quote "They call me Mister Tibbs!" was listed as number 16 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes, a list of top film quotes. The film also appears on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, a list of the 100 greatest movies in American cinema. In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film…

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cast

  • Sidney PoitierDet. Virgil Tibbs
  • Rod SteigerPolice Chief Bill Gillespie
  • Warren OatesDeputy Sam Wood
  • Lee GrantMrs. Leslie Colbert
  • Larry GatesEric Endicott
  • James PattersonMr. Purdy
  • William SchallertMayor Schubert
  • Beah RichardsMama Caleba
Images