Start the week with a film: ‘In The Heat of the Night’ follows a murder and one of the oldest crimes

Virgil Tibbs is arrested for the murder of the wealthy industrialist Philip Colbert. In the eyes of the local cops, Virgil has every reason to be a suspect: he has a wallet full of money; he’s leaving town; he’s Black.

The last factor is the most important in this small American town seething with racism. When Virgil (Sidney Poitier) reveals that he too is a police detective from Philadelphia, who was passing through town, the local police chief Bill (Rod Steiger) is gobsmacked.

Vigril wants to leave on the next available train, but his investigative skills are superior to those of Bill and his posse. Bill takes Virgil’s help to solve the murder, hating nearly every minute of it and not holding back with his feelings either.

Norman Jewison’s Oscar-decorated In The Heat of the Night (1967) is a film about a murder as well as one of the oldest crimes there is. Adapted by Stirling Silliphant from John Ball’s novel of the same name, the movie examines racism through the prism of a tightly constructed police procedural. Released during the Civil Rights movement in the United States, the film is one of the highlights in Sidney Poitier’s mould-shattering career.

In The Heat of the Night can be rented from Prime...

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