They Call Me Mister Tibbs! ** (1970, Sidney Poitier, Martin Landau, Barbara McNair, Anthony Zerbe, Edward Asner) – Classic Movie Review 6479

Director Gordon Douglas’s 1970 sequel to the 1967 classic In the Heat of the Night is an ordinary, but mildly entertaining thriller, in which Sidney Poitier reprises his role as good cop Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs on the case of a San Francisco murdered hooker.

You have to emphasise ‘mister’ to make sense of the title. It is a famous line from In the Heat of the Night:

Chief Gillespie (Rod Steiger): ‘Virgil? That’s a funny name for a n***er boy to come from Philadelphia. What do they call you up there?’

Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier): ‘They call me Mister Tibbs!’

Martin Landau as the Reverend Logan Sharpe, Anthony Zerbe as drug pusher Rice Weedon and Edward Asner as estate agent Woody Garfield give colourful if unsubtle performances as the suspects. Barbara McNair plays Tibbs’s wife Valerie.

Poitier is a strong, charismatic presence but Poitier’s original In the Heat of the Night co-star Rod Steiger is much missed as Chief Gillespie, and so is the dynamic between them on screen. However, Douglas is an expert at this kind of thriller and keeps it brisk and professional.

Also in the cast are Jeff Corey, Norma Crane, Juano Hernandez, David Sheiner, Beverly Todd, Ted Gehring, Linda Towne, Garry Walberg, George Spell, Wanda Spell, John Alvain, Hilly Hicks and John Hillerman.

It is written by Alan R Trustman and James R Webb, shot by Gerald Perry Finnerman, produced by Walter Mirisch and Herbert Hirshman, scored by Quincy Jones and designed by Addison Hehr.

A second sequel followed in 1971: The Organization.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6479

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