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1967 Best Picture:
In the Heat of the Night

 

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.   

 

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.   

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.  

 

 

 

 

Civil rights finally get their due, as the Best Picture of 1967. 
Rod Steiger was voted Best Actor for playing Sheriff Gillespie, the bigoted cop who investigates a murder in his town.
Sam Wood, played by Warren Oates, arrests a suspect.
The suspect turns out to be Virgil Tibbs, a Detective from the north.
Lee Grant is Mrs. Colbert, reacting to the news of her husbands death.
 
"They call me Mr. Tibbs!"  Potier exerts his authority. 
Steiger is forced to work with the colored negro - and he ain't too happy about it.
 
Potier is threatened by some redneck thugs. 
Steiger is frustrated that Potier is cracking this complicated case, that he would sooner see go away.
 

A backwoods abortion doctor holds a key to the murder. 

The cops get a sworn confession.
 
Case closed, Virgil goes home, but only after earning the respect of Sheriff Gillespie.
This film can be purchased on VHS and DVD!

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