In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Name: In the Heat of the Night
Released: 1967
Rating: 7.7
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Peter Whitney, Lee Grant

• Movies, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

• 109 min

7.6

They got a murder on their hands. They don’t know what to do with it.

Directed by: Norman Jewison
Casting: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Peter Whitney, Lee Grant, Anthony James, William Schallert, Scott Wilson, Larry Gates, James Patterson, Quentin Dean, Kermit Murdock, Larry D. Mann, Matt Clark, Beah Richards, Arthur Malet, Fred Stewart, Timothy Scott, William Watson, Eldon Quick, Jester Hairston, Stuart Nisbet, Khalil Bezaleel, Peter Masterson, Phil Adams, Nikita Knatz, Sam Reese, Jack Teter, Alan Oppenheimer, Clegg Hoyt, Buzz Barton
Countries: United States of America
Premiere: 1967-08-02
Status: Released

Tags: small town, southern usa, black people, police chief, stolen money, racial segregation, racist, murder, youth gang, racism, whodunit, poverty, false accusations, police station, racial tension, bigotry, autopsy room, red herring, railroad station, white supremacists, nymphette, bigot, deep south, cotton plantation, southern small town, rumble, illegal abortionist, petty thief, jumping to conclusions, preserved film

African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.