In the Heat of the Night
Short description
In the small Mississippi town of Sparta, a wealthy industrialist is found murdered. A Black stranger waiting at the railway station, carrying a large sum of cash, is picked up by Deputy Sam Wood and brought before Police Chief Bill Gillespie, who treats him as the prime suspect. The man turns out to be Virgil Tibbs, a homicide detective from Philadelphia, and he is released without apology. Tibbs is then ordered to remain in Sparta and work alongside Gillespie on the case, an arrangement neither man welcomes. The two must navigate the town's hostility toward a Black investigator while pursuing the killer through its different social circles.
Norman Jewison directed the film, the fourth of the nineteen features listed in his filmography, arriving between The Cincinnati Kid and The Thomas Crown Affair. Stirling Silliphant wrote the screenplay, and Walter Mirisch produced for United Artists and The Mirisch Company. Sidney Poitier plays Tibbs opposite Rod Steiger as Gillespie, with Warren Oates, Peter Whitney, Lee Grant and Anthony James among a credited cast of thirty-one.
Made for about two million dollars, the film took roughly twenty-seven million worldwide, a strong return. On IMDb it holds 7.9 out of 10 from around ninety-one thousand votes, while TMDB shows 7.7 from about thirteen hundred. A critics' score of 8.5 from ninety-one reviews sits above both audience figures.
What's left behind the scenes
- The first major, full-color Hollywood project that took into account the participation of an actor with dark skin. Understanding that conventional lighting would inevitably cause glare on the skin of such actors, cinematographer Haskell Wexler (1922-2015) reduced the lighting in scenes with Sidney Poitier.
- A film adaptation of John Ball’s “A Hot Night in Carolina”.
- The film is set in Mississippi in the summer, but was shot in Illinois in the fall. Therefore, the actors had to hold ice cubes in their mouths and spit them out before filming each take so that steam from their breath wouldn't be visible on screen during night scenes.
- Sidney Poitier insisted on filming in Illinois, remembering how he and Harry Belafonte (singer, actor, and activist) were nearly killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. The film was shot in Illinois, but the filmmakers once had to travel to Tennessee because there were no cotton plantations in Illinois where they could shoot some scenes. During filming in Tennessee, Poitier slept with a pistol under his pillow. Local racist organizations issued threats, and the film crew quickly returned to Illinois.
- The first major color Hollywood film to take into account the participation of a Black actor. Understanding that standard lighting would cause glare on dark skin, cinematographer Haskell Wexler reduced the lighting in scenes featuring Sidney Poitier.
- The scene in the sheriff's house used dialogue that was improvised by Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger (1925-2002) themselves.
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