1967 Best Picture:
In the Heat of the Night
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Competition: Bonnie
& Clyde, Doctor Doolittle, The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Other Winners:
Best Actor: Rod
Steiger, In the Heat of the Night
Best Actress: Katherine Hepburn, Guess Who's Coming to
Dinner?
Best Supporting Actor: George Kennedy, Cool
Hand Luke
Best Supporting Actress: Estelle Parsons, Bonnie & Clyde
Best Director: Mike Nichols, The Graduate |
Cast:
Sydney Potier, Rod
Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant, Larry Gates, James Patterson, William
Schallert, Beah Richards, Peter Whitney Storyline:
After being arrested
in error, for a murder in a small southern town, Detective Virgil Tibbs is
asked by his superiors to work with the racist police that are
investigating the crime. Did it deserve to
win:Yes!
Some interesting films came out in 1967, but In the Heat of the Night
stands out as one of the best!
Civil
rights was a hot topic back then, and this was not the only film to handle
racism. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? was the final Hepburn-Tracey
pairing, that took a gentler view when a girl brings her black boyfriend
(also Potier) home to meet her liberal minded folks.
Bonnie
& Clyde was a hit for both Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, containing
a violent ending, not seen on film until that time.
The
Graduate might have been the raunchiest hit of the year, when the older
Anne Bancroft seduces young newcomer, Dustin Hoffman.
And Dr.
Doolittle, which I don't think belonged in the running, was a typical
musical romp, featuring the talents of Rex Harrison.
Critique:
The issue of racism in In the Heat of the Night may be
nothing new by today's standards, but all that aside, the direction of the
film, the no-nonsense dialogue and the powerful acting, make this effort a
first-rate classic. In
its day, In the Heat of the Night was a landmark film. It's a gritty
crime drama, with race relations at its core. In the Heat of the
Night is realistic in every way, telling it like it is, not taking
the preachy route to make its point.
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Best Scene:
The
Slap! When Endicot finds out that he is being questioned by Poiter,
he slaps him on the face. Potier, without hesitation, slaps
back!
Steiger
watches on in disbelief. "What are you going to do about it
Gillespie?" he is asked. "I don't know." is his
dumbfounded reply.
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Behind the Scenes:
In the Heat of the Night was nominated for 7
Oscars, and won five of them. Many felt that Potier should have won
the Best Actor award, but lost it because he already won an award in 1964
for Lilies in the Field. In
the Heat of the Night spawned a sequel, They Call Me Mister Tibbs.
It also stands as the only Best Picture film to become a TV series.
Carroll O'Conner and Harold E. Rollins Jr. Katherine
Hepburn set a record that year, with a thirty-five year span between Oscar
wins. She won in 1931/32 for Morning Glory. She didn't attend
the ceremony (she never does) but did cable her thanks. She said,
"I'm enormously touched. It is gratifying that someone else
voted for me apart from myself." The
ceremony that year was marred, and eventually delayed, as a result of the
assassination of Martin Luther King. The awards ceremony had
yet to ever stop for anything, but it made this exception when it was
determined that many key stars, including Sydney Potier, would not be
attending if the ceremony took place prior to King's funeral.
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