In the Heat of the Night
Starring: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates
Director: Norman Jewison
The film: The year 1967 saw a number of moves forward for the American Civil Rights Movement. On June 12, the Supreme Court repealed the last remaining state law banning mixed-race marriage, and the following day Thurgood Marshall became its first black appointed member. Two major race-themed films were also released that year, both starring Sidney Poitier: In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Up against some of the hottest competition of any Academy Awards (Bonnie and Clyde, Cool Hand Luke, The Graduate) they received 17 nominations between them, but it was the former that took the highest honours, including best picture. And although a film's worth should never be judged on the number of Oscars it receives, the awards reflected a significant shift of direction in Hollywood.
Set in Mississippi (but filmed in Illinois, since the southern state was deemed too risky for Poitier to be seen filming in public) In the Heat of the Night sees Poitier's character picked up early on from a railway waiting room by the local police on suspicion of murder. It's only downtown, after getting some verbal abuse from the chief (best actor winner Rod Steiger; below, with Poitier), that he answers a question about his occupation with the immortal, seething line: 'I am a police officer'.
Not only is the vacationing Virgil Tibbs a police officer, he's also the best homicide expert in his department. In fact, he's so good that his boss recommends that he stays in town to help clear up the murder of which he was accused. Cue, thereafter, a steady stream of angry local residents, grudgingly helpful colleagues and frequent use of the N word. Of course, it's the top man in town, a cotton farm owner, who gets the early suspicion, and when he slaps Poitier in the face and gets like in return, the tension is palpable. The first of its kind, one can only imagine how this scene must have been received in US cinemas in 1967, especially south of the Mason-Dixon Line. The Academy Awards ceremony at which the film was feted had to be postponed for two days because of the murder of Martin Luther King.
