Line #53 Film/InTheHeatOfTheNight


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6	-> '''Police Chief Gillespie:''' You're pretty sure of yourself, ain't you, Virgil? Virgil – that's a funny name for a nigger boy that comes from Philadelphia. What do they call you up there?
7	->'''Det. Virgil Tibbs:''' '''''[[TheyCallMeMisterTibbs They call me Mister Tibbs!]]'''''
8
9	A 1967 mystery thriller film [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on]] a 1965 novel of the same name by John Ball, directed by Creator/NormanJewison and starring Creator/SidneyPoitier and Creator/RodSteiger. The supporting cast includes Creator/WarrenOates, Creator/LeeGrant, Larry Gates, William Schallert, and Creator/ScottWilson in his screen debut.
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11	On his way back home after visiting his mother, black Philadelphian Virgil Tibbs (Poitier) finds himself arrested on suspicion of the murder of a prominent factory owner in [[DeepSouth Sparta, Mississippi]], due to the simple circumstance of his being a black man found sitting in a train station with money in his pocket. However, while being questioned by Sparta police chief Bill Gillespie (Steiger), Tibbs reveals that he is in fact a police officer himself, and when Gillespie phones his department for verification and mentions that they're working on a murder, Tibbs is told by his Philly superiors that he should assist the locals in solving the case – partnered with the hot-tempered, casually-racist Gillespie. It's a rocky beginning to the partnership, but the more that Tibbs displays his detective prowess, the more that Gillespie comes to respect – and rely on – him. Working together, chasing several false leads, and fighting against the truly rabid racism of some of the local rednecks, they gradually uncover the truth of the case.
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13	Released at the height of American racial tensions during the '60s [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement civil rights era]], the film was both a commercial and critical success, receiving seven UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations and winning for Best Picture, Actor (Steiger), Editing (Creator/HalAshby), Adapted Screenplay (Stirling Silliphant), and Sound. Music/QuincyJones composed the music score. Poitier went on to reprise his role in the sequels ''[[Film/TheyCallMeMisterTibbs1970 They Call Me Mister Tibbs!]]'' (1970) and ''Film/TheOrganization'' (1971), both of which are set in San Francisco and feature more of an urban flavor.
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15	Twenty years later the film spawned a TV series [[TheOtherDarrin with different actors]], which has [[Series/InTheHeatOfTheNight its own page]].
16
17	----
18	!!"They call me MISTER TROPES!"
19
20	* AccidentalMurder: [[spoiler:Ralph Henshaw only meant to rob Mr. Colbert, not to kill him.]]
21	* AdaptationalJerkass: Endicott, the plantation owner, is a sympathetic character in the novel with no hint of racial prejudice. In the movie he's an unabashed racist, and a few toughs try to gang-beat Tibbs after their confrontation. Also Gillespie, who is more overtly abrasive and sarcastic in the movie.
22	* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Tibbs is a lot more assertive and temperamental in the movie than he was in the book.
23	* ArmorPiercingResponse:
24	** After Tibbs has his slap-exchange with Endicott and becomes convinced he must be the killer, he asks Gillespie to give him more time to prove it, saying "I can pull that fat cat down!" To which Gillespie remarks, "Man, you're just like the rest of us, ain't you?" – thereby pointing out that, in spite of Tibbs's earlier denials, he ''does'' harbor (admittedly understandable) prejudice of his own towards at least some people in Sparta. Tibbs has no reply and looks somewhat abashed, and [[spoiler:after figuring out that Endicott isn't actually the murderer, admits that he ''wanted'' it to be him due to his own personal bias]].
25	** Gillespie becomes convinced that Sam Wood is the killer based on Tibbs's line of questioning to him, and is frustrated that Tibbs is so adamant that he's innocent. He demands to know why, his voice rising to a shout, and Tibbs raises his own voice to respond that [[spoiler:because the killer drove Colbert's body into town with his own car to dump him there, there's no way it could be Officer Wood, who was on patrol at the time and driving his own police car ("Sam couldn't have driven two cars!").]] Gillespie instantly realizes he's right and shuts right up, clearly humbled.
26	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Gillespie pursues Harvey Oberst to the border with Arkansas... which is almost 200 miles away. It's unlikely that Harvey could have fled that far in the short time depicted, whether on foot or hitchhiking.
27	* BackAlleyDoctor: Mama Caleba, the town abortionist.
28	* BigBrotherInstinct: Lloyd Purdy is furious when he believes that Sam Wood had sex with his younger sister Delores (who is below the age of consent of Mississippi, making it statutory rape) and got her pregnant, and comes to the police station to press charges. [[spoiler:Later, when Tibbs reveals to him that Ralph Henshaw is the real father of her baby, Purdy is so enraged that he forgets all about lynching Tibbs and turns on Ralph with a shotgun for "turn[ing] my little sister into a field slut", prompting Ralph to shoot him in self-defense]].
29	* BigDamnHeroes: When Tibbs is cornered by four racists who plan to lynch him in retaliation for slapping Endicott, Gillespie arrives and runs them off.
30	* BookEnds: Tibbs both arrives and leaves town by train.
31	* BreakTheHaughty: Bill Gillespie starts off the film as a casual racist, and the stereotypical "country hick" chief of police in a small Southern town. After meeting Tibbs, a black homicide investigator who is far more competent at police work than he'll ever be, Gillespie grows more respectful to Virgil, especially after the latter proves his prime suspect to be innocent no less than ''three times'' (the first of whom was Tibbs himself). By the end, he warmly bids Virgil goodbye at the train station, thanks him for his help, and shakes his hand.
32	* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:Ralph, the diner employee, has a number of scenes in which he takes a prominent role in spite of seeming to have nothing to do with the murder. He's the first person we see in the film, shooting a rubber band at a fly. He occasionally taunts Sam by hiding pie and begins one scene by rigging the jukebox to play a song so he can dance by himself. The film justifies all this attention by revealing him to be the murderer]].
33	* ContrivedCoincidence: Sam just happens to make a large cash deposit into his bank account that almost exactly matches the amount stolen by the murderer shortly after the crime.
34	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The overt racism and small-town ignorance of Sparta were meant to be off-putting to audiences even at the time of the film's release.
35	* DontYouDarePityMe: Tibbs and Gillespie seem to be bonding during a quiet moment, but the moment Tibbs says something remotely sympathetic about Gillespie's lack of romance, Gillespie turns cold and mean on a dime.
36	* DudeMagnet: Harvey Oberst, Sam Wood, and [[spoiler:Ralph Henshaw]] are all attracted to Delores Purdy, [[spoiler:with the latter having even gotten her pregnant]], despite the fact that [[JailbaitTaboo she's only 16]]. It doesn't help that she parades through her kitchen in the nude every night with her window curtains wide open.
37	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Endicott's status as a PoliticallyIncorrectVillain is established before he even appears onscreen -- Tibbs and Gillespie see dozens of Black workers picking cotton as they drive up to his plantation house, which has a statue of a lawn jockey next to the walkway. In person, he seems slightly cordial to Tibbs, but begins talking about hothouse orchids as being "like the Negro", showing his paternalistic "white man's burden" attitude and the contempt he held for Colbert's integrated factory plans.
38	* EveryoneHasStandards: Gillespie, as explained in ReasonableAuthorityFigure down below.
39	* {{Expy}}: Rod Steiger received directions to base his performance as Sheriff Bill Gillespie on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TXlB-1BK80 J.W. the Dodge Safety Sheriff]], a stereotypical southern sheriff character portrayed by actor Joe Higgins and used as a popular advertising {{mascot}} for Dodge automobiles in the 1960s. Steiger took the advice, although he greatly toned down the comedic aspects of the character.
40	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: 48 hours, tops.
41	* FalseRapeAccusation: Or statutory rape, anyway. [[JailbaitTaboo Delores Purdy]] is convinced to accuse officer Sam Wood of impregnating her, to cover for [[spoiler:Ralph Henshaw.]]
42	* FeetFirstIntroduction: Tibbs, disembarking from the train during the opening credits. We don't see his face (or see him again at all) until some ten minutes into the film.
43	* FishOutOfWater: Tibbs, the black big-city police detective, making his way in a racist small-town Mississippi backwater.
44	* GreasySpoon: Compton's Cafe, which takes a prominent role in the investigation because Sam stops there on the night of the murder and [[spoiler:its lone employee committed the murder]].
45	* HeatWave: It's September, but being in Mississippi, Sparta is still in the grip of one of these.
46	* IDidntMeanToKillHim: [[spoiler:Ralph]] says this word-for-word in his confession scene.
47	* InstantlyProvenWrong: When Tibbs gets dragged in for interrogation, Gillespie asks him what he was doing at the train station.
48	-->'''Tibbs:''' I was waiting for the train.
49	-->'''Gillespie:''' Well, now, there ain't no trains this time of mornin'.
50	-->'''Tibbs:''' Tuesdays only, 4:05 to Memphis.
51	-->'''Gillespie:''' ''You'' say.
52	-->''[train whistles in the distance]''
53	-->'''Gillespie:''' Well... all right, you say right.
54	* InVinoVeritas: Gillespie briefly opens up to Virgil about how lonely his life is after a few drinks.
55	* TheKillerWasLeftHanded: Inverted. Being left-handed cleared the first suspect.
56	* LondonEnglandSyndrome: When they first meet, Tibbs tells Gillespie he's from Philadelphia.
57	-->'''Gillespie:''' Philadelphia, Mississippi?
58	-->'''Tibbs:''' Philadelphia, ''Pennsylvania!''
59	** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], in that Gillespie was checking which Philly Tibbs was referring to.[[note]]It's apparently also a reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Chaney,_Goodman,_and_Schwerner a then-infamous incident]] in Philadelphia, MS.[[/note]]
60	* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Delores Purdy tells Gillespie that Sam Wood got her pregnant after taking her to the cemetery for sex, although this turns out to be false testimony. (Justified in-universe; in a hot-as-balls place like Sparta, a cool granite slab in a cemetery is a relief.)
61	* MisplacedWildlife: When Tibbs is studying the murder scene (where he tells Gillespie that [[spoiler:"Sam couldn't have driven two cars"]]), the distinctive "chi-''caa''-go, chi-''caa''-go" call of a California quail can be heard. They don't come east of the Rocky Mountains.
62	* MommasBoy: The reason Tibbs is in Sparta in the first place is that he's changing trains on his way back from visiting his mother. We never actually meet her or see their relationship directly though, so this is merely implied.
63	* NobleBigotWithABadge: Gillespie starts out as one. By the end of the movie, he can hardly even be called a bigot.
64	* OddCouple: Bill Gillespie, a casually-racist chief of police in Sparta, Mississippi, who isn't particularly well-loved in his own town, and Virgil Tibbs, a black detective from Pennsylvania who constantly has to deal with the bigotry of the townspeople. They gradually grow to respect each other more as they investigate together.
65	* OralFixation: Gillespie chews gum constantly. (Rod Steiger initially didn't like the idea, until he realized that he could use it to show Gillespie emoting.)
66	* ThePeepingTom: Officer Sam Wood stops on his nightly patrol route to gawk at Delores Purdy, who parades around her kitchen in the nude.
67	* PoliceAreUseless: It is explained that Sparta has not had a murder in ages, and the small-town tactics they employ do not cover the severity of the case. Gillespie is competent in things like chasing down suspects, but figuring out a murder requires the forensics skills that Tibbs knows by heart. More worryingly, the police department is ''very'' quick to jump to conclusions without further investigation. (ex: Sam gets put in jail on both murder and statutory rape charges, one cell over from the ''previous'' suspect in that same murder case.)
68	* PoliceBrutality: Gillespie gutpunches one of the thugs who are trying to kill Tibbs, even though they are no longer physically trying to attack either one at this point. A rare example where the audience isn't intended to have much sympathy for the recipient, especially since they're hurling racist slurs and mocking Gillespie for helping a black man.
69	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Mr. Endicott's racism stands out even against that of the rest of Sparta, [[spoiler: although he's actually not the villain at all. Just a racist jerk]]. Lloyd Purdy is similarly antagonistic, to the point of [[spoiler:organizing a mob to hunt down Tibbs for the "crime" of being present at Delores's interrogation. And Ralph, the actual killer, makes a pointed refusal to serve Virgil midway through the film.]]
70	* PragmaticAdaptation: The novel's Mr. Tibbs was a polite, non-confrontational African-American; the film's Mr. Tibbs, on the other hand, is much more assertive towards the bigots around him.
71	* {{Pride}}: Tibbs is not inclined to help Gillespie solve the murder after how he's been treated, but Gillespie points out he'd never be able to resist showing he's smarter than all these white people.
72	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Tibbs' best-known line qualifies.
73	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Gillespie, of all people. Despite his racism, he is pissed to find out that his men just arrested a cop and did not even bother to search him or check his identification before bringing him into the station. And in his own way he more or less begs Tibbs for his help, acknowledging that he and his fellow cops cannot solve a murder this complicated on their own. And at Endicott's plantation, when Tibbs slaps Endicott in return for the latter doing it to him first, Gillespie doesn't retaliate (while the mayor says that the chief of police before him would've instantly shot Tibbs and claimed self-defense), but also urges Virgil to leave town despite still wanting his help because he knows this has put Tibbs's life at risk.
74	* RedHerring:
75	** [[spoiler:The racially-charged environment in Sparta had nothing to do with the murder. It was just a mugging gone wrong.]]
76	** Sam's $600 bank deposit that makes him a suspect.
77	** [[spoiler:The fern root Tibbs finds in Colbert's car from Endicott's plantation turns out not to be related to the murder at all.]]
78	* RuleOfSymbolism: Tibbs urging the butler to pray for Endicott was part of Silliphant's adaptation of the story as subversive Christian allegory, featuring Tibbs as messianic outsider who confronts the racist establishment of Sparta.
79	* RunForTheBorder: Harvey Oberst, fleeing from the Sparta police, almost makes it across the Mississippi River bridge to Arkansas... except that Gillespie, already parked on the Mississippi end in his car, simply drives up and ''slowly'' intercepts him mid-span.
80	* SceneryCensor: The opening sequence has Sgt. Wood, out on his regular nightly patrol, stopping outside the house of a gorgeous, busty, naked young Delores Purdy, who seems to know that he is outside looking. In both a long shot and a medium shot, the window rail is carefully placed to hide the woman's nipples.
81	* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: Delores Purdy parades around her kitchen naked to get her kicks, with the drapes wide open so she's easily visible from the street.
82	* SourceMusic: Officer Wood listens to music on a portable radio in his patrol car, while Henshaw plays records on the jukebox at Compton's.
83	* SuddenlyShouting: When Gillespie finds out Virgil is a police officer, he calls Sam into his office, and calmly asks him if he searched Virgil before bringing him in. When he says he didn't, Gillespie nods towards Virgil's wallet on his desk. When Sam sees the badge, Gillespie yells, "''Yeah! OH, YEAH!!''", as a chastened Sam backs away.
84	* ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine: Endicott slaps Det. Virgil Tibbs for daring to question him on suspicion of murder. To the shock of white viewers and the delight of black ones, Tibbs instantly slaps the bigot back, an act that was previously ''unthinkable'' for African American characters in mainstream Hollywood films.
85	* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Gillespie is not too thrilled to have Tibbs second-guessing him during the early part of the investigation, but when Tibbs keeps getting proved correct, Gillespie lets up on the animosity. For his part, Tibbs does not help ease tensions by being both the smartest cop in town and black at a time of ''fragile'' race relations.
86	* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: The trope namer. Virgil Tibbs says this to Gillespie after the latter asks him how he is addressed up North.
87	* TitleThemeTune: Performed by Music/RayCharles. It became a minor hit.
88	* WhamLine:
89	** When Tibbs reveals who he is:
90	--->'''Gillespie:''' Now, just what do you do there in little ol' Pennsylvania to earn that kinda money?\
91	'''Tibbs:''' I'm a ''police officer!''
92	** Later on, when Gillespie suspects his deputy Sam of the murder, Tibbs delivers a line which shakes the former:
93	---> '''Tibbs:''' [[spoiler:Sam couldn't have driven two cars.]]
94	* WronglyAccused:
95	** Tibbs is but the first of several people wrongly suspected of the murder, in his case suspected merely because he's a black man found in the town's train station with a large amount of money in his pockets.
96	** The second is Harvey Oberst, a guy who was caught with Colbert's wallet. Virgil clears him on the grounds that he is left-handed and the blows to Colbert's head were from the right hand. (Clears him of murder; he remains guilty of theft.)
97	** The third is Sam Wood, one of Gillespie's men, who deposited a large amount of cash around the time of the murder, and lied about the road he drove on [[spoiler:during his beat. The reason for his lie is, he drove that route to eye Delores Purdy, who is notorious for parading around in the nude, and he didn't want Tibbs to see and/or Gillespie to know about it. He also couldn't have murdered Colbert, because the person who killed Colbert drove the dead man's car. Sam couldn't have driven that car and his own patrol car.]]
98	** While he's never formally charged or accused, Endicott is briefly suspected by Tibbs due to his opposition to Colbert's factory and the discovery of a fern from his greenhouse being found in the dead man's car. (Neither Tibbs nor Gillespie like him so they also don't work to clear him as a suspect, and he's only proven innocent when the real murderer confesses.)

Context Film / InTheHeatOfTheNight