In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Directed by

Norman Jewison

Genre

drama film, crime film, mystery film, buddy cop film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 49m

Rated

PG-13

Rating

7.7 of 10 from 1,257 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A black police detective from Philadelphia gets caught up in a murder case in a small Mississippi town. He works with the town's stubborn sheriff to solve the crime while facing racism and hostility.

tensegrittythoughtfulslow-burnconfrontationalatmosphericsuspensefulearnest

What happens

In the Heat of the Night is a 1967 American 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 Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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