In the Heat of the Night

Having never seen this before, I didn't realize Detective Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) was originally pulled in as a suspect in the murder of Mr. Colbert. I had assumed, I guess, that he had traveled from whatever Northern city he normally worked in (Philly) following a suspect from a crime there. Kind of like Coogan's Bluff, then.

Probably should have figured that a black man, waiting calmly for a train in a nice suit with some money in his wallet would be the immediate suspect in some jerkwater Southern town.

I spent most of my time watching Poitier's mannerisms and body language. He has this tension in the way he stands a lot of the time, where his body is leaning back, but his head is tipped forward. Like he wants to just attack these idiots. They treat him disrespectfully, like they can't believe it when has the temerity to ask them a question. The frickin' medical examiner won't even tell him where there's a sink he can wash his hands so he can do an autopsy.

But they need him to solve their murder. Chief Gillespie (Rod Steiger) asked Tibbs' boss to tell Tibbs to help. After they tried to pin a murder on him. Because they don't have the slightest clue what the fuck they're doing. He's frustrated, and angry, and he was just trying to catch his train to go home after visiting family, and now he's caught up in all this bullshit.

So that was interesting. The constant back-and-forth between whether he was going or staying got old. He decides to leave, Gillespie gets him to stay. They go question the wealthiest man in town, Gillespie doesn't like how he handles it, now he wants Tibbs on the train, and Tibbs doesn't want to go. Gillespie is certainly right that staying could be dangerous for Tibbs' health, but I guess I couldn't suspend disbelief that Tibbs would be killed. Or maybe I didn't buy that Gillespie really cared about that, so much as he just didn't like the wealthiest man in town being ticked off.