This multi-Oscar winning film thoroughly deserved all the awards it won. In The Heat of the Night has it all. Initially it seems a simple case, but it turns into a complex murder mystery, simultaneously portraying the deep prejudice and privilege that were rife in 1960s Southern America.
Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier, pictured, left) is a Philadelphia homicide detective who journeys home to see his mother in the rural South. A rich white man is found dead, and Tibbs is wrongly arrested for the crime. It appears that simply being black is a good enough reason for the local racist cops to arrest him.
When Tibbs's identity is finally established, his Philadelphia boss suggests that the black detective offers his services to small-town sheriff Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger, pictured, right). It's not the easiest of relationships. The sherrif has little experience with murder investigations, let alone dealing with black cops. But as the pair learn to work together, they eventually make progress on solving the crime.
Released in 1967, this movie hasn't aged a bit. It remains an all-time classic and a must-see.
In the Heat of the Night is a Film programme that first aired in 1967 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
