IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

In the Heat of the Night is a film which deals with changing race relations in the South and exemplified by the involved of a White Southern police officer, Gillespie (Rod Steiger) and an Northern African American one, Vergil Tibbs, Sidney Poiter. The two are brought together by a murder, hence the film has 2 separate stories going which are linked. One is the murder of a White man building a factory and the quest to find his murderer by the police. The second and moe dominant film deals with the relationship between the two officers. To find out which is more crucial you can ask yourself, "What would I tell someone who asked me what this film is about?". Is it the story of the murder or the story of the develping relatioship between the two men?

The film, like Call Northside 777 and Panic in the Streets deals with the gowing relationship between 2 men - Wiecek and McLean in the first and Reed and Warren in the second. The films defintiely stress a kind of male bonding over romance and marriage and in the first two films, wives are minor characters in the story while in this film neither is married and if they are involved with anyone, the person never appears.

The topic of race has been approached in other crime films Charlie Chan. Mr. Moto and so on, but none have made a point of the racial or ethnic nature of the character. Earl Derr Briggs created Chan to offset the negative stereotypes of Chinese in Western society, film and literature. This film foregrounds theede topics>

. The film is a response to the Civil Rights Movement, although it occurs rather late in it (the movement is generally seen as occuring from 1955 1968 with the Civil Rights Act having been passed in 1964 - three years before the film appeared.) None the less the film needs to be examined as an artifact of the time in which it was made. Its statement is not so much a call for civil rights as an assertion that it can happen. This would have been a far more daring film had it been made in 1955 or shortly thereafter if it were an exhortation for Civil RIghts.

This is not the first film that deals with minority detectives out of their jurisdiction in conflict with local law enforcers. A similar set up occurs in the 1958 Touch of Evil – a bad white cop, very bright and good Mexican cop, although in this film it is non Mexican Charleton Heston playing the Mexican officer (here again, as with Chan, the question is oe of economics. Why use a non Mexican for a major role since they rarely get leading parts? The reesponse of course is equally economic - the hilm won't make as much money because people would rather see Charleton Heston (although there were Hispanic actors around like Riccardo Montalban whi were well known enough to do it. With Asian, American Indians and some other ethnioc groups this was not the case)

. . This is also not the first film to deal with some sort of developing relationship and relaxation of tensions between bigots. In 1958 The Defiant Ones brought Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier together.very near the start of the Civil RIghts movement

. The film seems to be one of the first, if not the first, to depict southern sheriffs and other white officers as rednecks and not to bright and African Americans as more competent. The air conditioner in the chief's office doesn't work, the desk leg is broken, the gate is broken, the officers don't want to work ("You told my brother to fix the gate"), they jump to conclusions (the first person they catch is guilty until proven innocent and then the next person is the guilty one until......) and yjru try to grab the praise for ither people's correcy deductions (Harvey couldn't have committed the crime because he is left handed) It is clear in the film that (a) there is prejudice on both sides amd (b) that Chief Gillespie may not know as much about homicide as Officer Tibbs does, but he knows people and how to push their buttons. By calling Tibbs "officer" he causes him to stop leaving and go to look at the body. His verbal attack accusing him of "superiority" forces him to stay again. .

. One of the questions we have been looking at this week has been the distinction between a whodunit crime film and one with a crime, that is not a "who dunnit" even though we don't know "who dunnit".

This is somewhat related to the idea of a musical in which music appears in non real world places as opposed to drama with music.in which music appears where it would in the real world - e.g. a stage

In some films there is a crime, but the solution to the crime is not the issue. In Call Northside 777 the solution as to who killed the police officer is irrelevant. In Panic in the Streets, the interst is the attempt to find the person with plague. It is not really to find out who killed Kolchak. In Touch of Evil , most people can't remember at the end what the crime was, never mind who dunnit.! The crime is the motivation for a more interesting problem which involves the people SOLVING the crime, but the focus is not on the solution.

The problem in many of these kinds of films is that the crime (usually a murder) takes place early to a character with whom the audience has little or no connection.. In a sense we don't care about them. In Fargo there are similar problems and in the murders actually shown, they are all of people we don't know or don't like. The first three vistims are virtually unknown to the audience. We barely see the State Trooper's face. One of the car victims is shot in the back and we never see them. Vistim four Wade Gustafson, (Harve Presnel) a rather unpleasant character) is shot in such a way that it seems slightly funny with feathers floating out of his jacket. Victim 5 the garage attendent whom we don't know, is shot off screen , Jean Lundegaard (Kristin Rudrüd), victim sis is seen on the floor already dead, and finally #7 Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) is cut by ax and the editor (just as the fatal blow is struck). What can you say about the audiences involvement with a victim who dies before the film starts?

The film is set up as a mystery film in a number of ways. Can you identify them?

The film contains a scene which was jolting for its time – can you spot it?

The Crime in the Film

Generally speaking there are three parts to crimes and their solution:

Motives are usually found to fall into one of the following:

Serial killers are usually thought to fall outside this paradigm, although the motives are often thought to be sexual, but often Freudianly so.

Accidental killings are usually not common, unless carried out in the course of another crime as in The Hoodlum Priest 1961. The crime is the murder of Mr. Colbert, buth the detective work involved is rather minor. It allows for Officer Sam Wood to arrest Virgil Tibbs (not yet known to be a police officer) as a suspect which serves to bring Officer Tibbs and Chief Gillespie together..

Visually, the film starts as a crime film. The initial shot is of out of focus lights through a screen. We are not clear on what we are seeing but things clear up and it becomes the train arriving in Sparta, Mississippi.. Similarly there is a shot of Officer Wood entering train staion through screen doors. These are mystery like appraoches as things hidden become revealed, and things seen initially may not be as they seem. (Compare the opening of Rashoman with its descent into the woods with the woodcutter as we move into the mystery.)

The sequence of Officer Wood driving through the town gives a lot of information that is needed later - we find out about Dolores and her penchant to walk around undressed in front of the window.

The sudden stopping of the patrol car and the rapid movement of the camera (actually probably an optical) to the head light implies something of a rear end collisioin and presages the one coming between police officers Gillespie and Tibbs Hints as to who the murderer is are subtle, but there and as is often the case clearer when the film is over. Why do we see Ralph, the counter man killiing flies?

Why do we see Officer Sam Wood (Warren Oates) stop to look at Dolores (Quentin Dean)

The sequences in the jail itself are filled with images of entrapment: doors, bars

There ae many errors in the course of the "solving the murder" part of the film, which if this were really a "who dunnit" would be unforgiveable. How does Officer Tibbs know that Officer Wood made a wrong turn when they re-drive the some route Wood frove when he found the body? Officer Tibbs could reasonably surmise that he was keeping him from driving past Dolores' window to keep him from seeing her undressed. But that doesn't mean that Oddicer Woods drive past her house that night.

Officer Tibbs says the had Officer Wood killed Colbert he would have had to drive two cars back that night. Why> Couldn't he have called someone? People who aid and abet are called accomplaces. and are common .

The final solution is that the killing is an accident during the commission of another crime.

The time in the film is badly handled. There are clocks in many scenes and people talk about time. At their first meeting when Chief Gillespie and Officer Tibbs argue about whether or not there is a train around 4:00 am the sound of the train whistle shows Officer Tibbs correct.

Shortly after the two go see the body. There is a discussion again about how long ago the murder occured and it is close to 5:00 am. There is a call that the Sparta police are chading a fleeing suspect, Harvey Oberst (Scott Wilson) and the camera shows him running pursued by police and dogs - in a bright noon day sun. The camera is often low, giving something akin to a "dog's eye view" . Atfer a chase which involes them being separated by a train (a fortuoitous occurance) , and an ineresting telephoto zoom shot on the bridge, Harvey is caught by Chief Gillespie.

The next shot shows Officer Tibbs arriving with a package to be sent to te F.B.I. The clock shows it is not yet 7:30. Almost immediately Harvey is brought in by the police.

Other problems with time deal with Ralph and rerestaurant. He claims in his confession he left the diner and met Mr. Colbert. They went out to the place where the factory was to be built and Ralph kills him there are about 12:30 am. He then frives back into town dumps the body, leaves the car and goes to work in the diner - at 1:00 am?? He just left there, but we know he has been working there since when the film starts he is killing flies there and waiting on Officer Wood. It is about 2:15 (although what the diner is doing open in that tiwn in the middle of the night is somethng of a mystery as why that is where Officer Tibbs is changing trains in the middle of the night).

Despite Jewisons insistence this is a who dunnit it seem like a rather bad one

Both Call Northside 777 and Panic in the Streets break some of the rules, they are far less signifcant than the ones here. In Northsude 777 an important piece of information is concealed under McNeal's thumbs. He knows about it, but the audience does not. This violates a "rule" of mysteries In Panic in the Streets, important information is given in questioning which is proper and the detectives pick up on it – do you? The interesting thing in this film is that the audience is aware that Mrs. Mafaris is sick and likely to die. In the writing information which appears irrelevant is placed early in the story amd its significance appears during the "exposition" phase where the "detective" explains how they came to the right conclusion. While it is never clear why or from what Harvey Oberst (Scott Wilson) is running away, it is necessary to have him arrested so he can give information about town, Dolores'behavios, and where to get an abortion tp Officer Tibbs. There is so much "badly" handled in the "crime" part of the story one has to suspect it was not this that the film was interested in .There is more going on in the film about racism, prejudice and bigotry than about the murder and more image dealing with it. This implies the fim is more a social drama than it is a crime film. The text bristles with racism and bigotry and as Chief Gillespie points out, that Officer Tibbs is "out to get" Endicott because he dislikes him. not because of the ecidence.

While it is never clear why or from what Harvey Oberst (Scott Wilson) is running away, it is necessary to have him arrested so he can give information about town, Dolores'behavios, and where to get an abortion tp Officer Tibbs.

Social Events

The film wherein Officer Tibbs is slapped by Mr. Endicott and slaps him back in front of Chief Gillespie was a jolt to many in the audience and it is reported that African American audiences often applauded at that point. The scene prompted a documentary called The Slap Heard Round the World. That had not happened in a film before although interracial kisses seem to have occurred in a Holloywood film as eatly as 1957 (John Justin and Dorthy Dandridge in Island in the Sun. AND for them of you what are interested in such stuff - Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner managed the first Netweork scripted interracial kiss on Star Trek on Nov. 22, 1968 in an episode calle "Plato's Children:". Sammy Dacis Jr.beat them to the punch when he kissed Nancy Sinatra on TV in December of 1967 on her show Movin' with Nancy. Nuff said. .

In the scene Endicott is close to tears, mot because of the physical pain but because he sees the end of "his" era. In the past he could have had Officer Tibbs shot, but now even the Chief does nothing..

The film contains two classic lines read by Poitier. When Chief Gillespie sarcastically asks Officer Tibbs what they call him in Philadelphia, he snaps, "They call me Mister Tibbs." Later, having deduced that the murderer is diner counterman Ralph Henshaw

At the very end of the film, as Poitier is boarding a train to leave the town, the last lines are read by Steiger, and sum the growth of their relationship, yet maintaining the standard of the South. He said, "You take care now, Virgil," words to give support to the budding civil rights movement, exemplifying that, with effort, racial divides are capable of being overcome.

Bad economic problems. Air conditioner doesn’t work right, gate on door doesn’t work right. Rather flat lighting often. Recognition of status makes some kind of bond.