In The Heat Of The Night (1967) The Mirisch Corporation 📢 Director: Norman Jewison 💰 Producer: Walter Mirisch 👫 Cast: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant. 🏆 Awards ceremony: -40th Academy Awards: April 10, 1968. Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, California. 🎭 Other films nominated for Best Picture this year: -Bonnie And Clyde. -Doctor Dolittle. -The Graduate. -Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. 📕 Plot summary: "They call me Mr. Tibbs". Sparta, Mississippi: A dead man is found in the street one night. Gillespie, the chief of police (ROD STEIGER) orders his deputy to find a suspect but the only person in the vicinity is a black man at the local train station who is waiting for the next train to take him home. The black man (SIDNEY POITIER) is arrested under suspicion of the murder and thrown into the police cells. It turns out that he is Virgil, a fellow policeman from out of state and is released when his identity is confirmed. To add insult to injury, Gillespie has the balls to ask Virgil to assist their police force to solve the crime with them. Virgil and Gillespie then form an uneasy alliance in tracking down the real culprit. 💥 Standout scene: Gillespie's admission that he needs Virgil more than Virgil needs him. 🔑 Facts: -The 40th Academy Awards. -Nominated for 7 Academy Awards, it won 5: Best Picture, Actor (Rod Steiger), Screenplay (adapted), Editing, Sound. 🙂 Personal opinion: The film is a slow-burner with sluggish pacing at times and a story that just about keeps the interest alive for the viewer. Watchable and enjoyable for the most part but certainly not a classic. A 'whodunnit' type of film where, as the film went on I started to not really care who the killer really was. Rod Steiger deserved the Best Actor Oscar with the best performance in the film and his on-screen partnership with Sidney Poitier is an interesting development. The quality of the picture for the Blu-Ray leaves some questions to be answered I'm afraid. Slightly above average and nothing more. Did it deserve the Oscar? ❌NO. Cool Hand Luke, The Dirty Dozen, The Graduate... anybody? ⭐️6/10

Review date: 15 March 2025