In The Heat Of The Night 1967

The Film:

I've heard a fair bit about this film - I can quote its most famous line ("They call me *Mister* Tibbs) and I know it's a Sidney Poitier classic (and I used to think it was the one he won the Oscar for, but I know better now...). Other than that I am fairly ashamed to say I didn't really know very much else before I started to do a bit of research in the lead up to watching this.                                                                                                                                       It's quite a change from previous films this decade. So far every film we've watched (and the last two that are still to come!) has had at least one (and often two) of the following qualities - it's been set in contemporary New York, it's been a musical or it's been set in historical London. This one doesn't fit any of these categories. It's contemporary, but it's significantly set in Mississippi, with all the racial tensions that the setting implies.

Having read a bit more about it I'm really looking forward to it. It will be good to see Rod Steiger again, a decade on from On The Waterfront and I'm intrigued as to how far it will hold up more than 50 years on, when it is no longer a contemporary drama - will it hold up as a historical piece? And will it (sadly) still have things to say to a 21st century audience? And, above all, is it any good?

The Ceremony:

The ceremony was originally scheduled for 8th April 1968, but was postponed for two days following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jnr. (In less unusual news, it was at Santa Monica and Bob Hope was the host!)

Due to the marked decrease in the numbers of black and white films being put forward for consideration, from this year onward any awards that still had separate b&w/colour categories had these categories merged into one.

It was the first time that three different films were all up for the "Big Five" (picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay - so far only It Happened One Night had actually won all five). Although none of those three films - Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - actually won Best Picture.

It is also the last time to date that a film has won Best Director and absolutely nothing else. The film in question was The Graduate. (I'm writing this on the night of the 90th Academy Awards - but I predict that this is extremely unlikely to change!)


Other Notable Winners That Night:

Finally!

I've already mentioned that Best Film and Best Director were split that night. Best Actor went (deservedly so in my opinion) to Rod Steiger. After eight unsuccessful nominations, Katharine Hepburn finally won her second Oscar, thirty four years after her first one. (She wouldn't have anywhere near as long to wait for her next one!)

The other most notable winner that evening was - finally! - Alfred Hitchcock, who was given the Irving G Thalberg award. Probably one of the most famous (and famously-snubbed) film-makers of all time, this was the only time he received any sort of Academy Award. It technically wasn't an "Oscar" but more accurately an "Irving" as you can see from the photo. I am sure Hitch had plenty that he wanted to say to the Academy, but instead he delivered one of the shortest acceptance speeches ever - "Thank you.....very much indeed!"


Best Song:

I don't get it. Doctor Dolittle is all very nice and everything, and "Talk To The Animals" works quite well in the context of the film - but it's just a little ditty that's speak-sung by Rex Harrison. (To be fair, I've never really got the cockerney Leslie Bricusse / Anthony Newley thing - except when David Bowie did it, that is....)

Other nominees included The Bare Necessities and The Look of Love. Just saying.....

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Yes Ben, she's trying to seduce you...

With the possible exception of Doctor Dolittle (can you tell I'm not a fan?) the nominated pictures this year are all classics. And all a bit daring and edgy - a sign of a change in the style and subject matter of films that were being taken seriously by both the public and the industry. Any of Bonnie and Clyde, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner or The Graduate could have won it - and, in fact, the actual winner was the only one that I hadn't already seen. I'm ok with (and pleasantly surprised by) the Academy's choice - but I think my vote would have gone to The Graduate. It's clever, dark, dramatic and funny. It's got some great performances in it (including a very young Dustin Hoffman) and it's got a great soundtrack that is used really inventively. Oh, and William Daniels is in it (my favourite tv teacher and my favourite tv doctor) and that always a bonus in my book!

Our Verdict:

Expertly placed window.....

One of my first thoughts after watching this one is to wonder why I hadn't seen it before. Then to remind myself quite how long ago this film was made - right in the middle of the Civil Rights movement for one thing, and a fair few years before all the cop shows and movie franchises of the seventies and eighties (of which this is a superior prototype!).

My other main thought was about how good Rod Steiger was. It was interesting to note that a film which was basically about a Black cop struggling in a racist town won an Oscar for its White star, but not even a nomination for its Black star. Having seen the film, I get why. Sidney Poitier does exactly what he needs to do - basically, be Sidney Poitier. In other words, a smart, well-educated, well-spoken and dignified Black man. He does that really well, and (at that time at least) it needed to be him doing it, but it wasn't the biggest acting stretch of his career. Steiger, on the other hand, is just superb!

Body language is everything.....

A very significant slap!

The story itself is a good one - and very timely, given the reasons for the postponement of the ceremony this year. There is a murder in a small town in Mississippi and the local cops (who are clearly not really used to such things) go out "round up the usual suspects" as it were. Poitier is Tibbs, a homicide expert from New York who happens to be passing through, at the local station waiting for a train. He also happens to be Black - and so he is seen as suspicious and hauled to the Police Station as a suspect. The local chief Gillespie (Steiger) gradually realises who Tibbs is and what has happened - and the way he struggles to deal with this in the first twenty minutes or so after they meet is some of the best film acting I've seen. Steiger, with relatively few words, gives us a character who is basically decent, wants to do his job well, but also doesn't want to cause any fuss or stir up tensions - and is also a product of his upbringing in a racially segregated area.

Tibbs agrees (reluctantly) to stay on a few days and help with the investigation of the crime - despite the view of many around him that he probably won't survive the investigation, given who is involved and their views on Black people. Tibbs does his job, expects respect and - in most cases, particularly from Gillespie - eventually gets it.

Not quite a partnership - but a taste of things to come for
the buddy-cop genre!

If you take out the dramatic and social significance of the racial tension, the rest of the film is fairly standard cop drama stuff. It's done very well and, as far as we could work out, is probably the first of its kind. But there were many more that came after it (including a few sequels to this film, and a TV show). Among others, two decades later we had substituted Gillespie and Tibbs for Riggs and Murtaugh (and they are still going strong!). The soundtrack, the cinematography, the editing etc - all of these must have been something quite different to cinema-goers in the mid-60s. They became very familiar to TV viewers of the 70s and 80s.

It's not a perfect film by any means, and if we're looking at things on artistic merit then the Oscar should probably have gone somewhere else. But it is a good film, with social significance and an important story to tell (which it does without being preachy or mawkish) - and two great leads that elevate the whole thing beyond just the sum of its parts. I'm glad we gave ourselves a reason to watch it!