In the Heat of the Night

 1967 was a year when the Academy was starting to acknowledge the so called "new Hollywood".  A lot of the themes in the best picture nominations represented social changes of the time. Two had to do with racial tensions in the late 60's. Both of them starred Sidney Poitier including the the winner In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. The other themes that year included sexual coming of age with the Graduate and the highly violent Bonnie and Clyde. The final nomination that year was Dr. Doolittle which was not considered a serious contender and represented the "old Hollywood".  I think In the Heat of the Night is my favorite of the 5(although to be honest I have never seen Dr. Doolittle). It is an amazing detective drama.  And while I love Guess Who's Coming to Dinner I like the grittiness of In the Heat of the Night.
In the Heat of the Night is about a detective from the North who is in the wrong place at the wrong time when a murder of a rich business man happens in the deep South. The local cops immediately arrest him not knowing he is a also a cop. Being a detective from Philadelphia he is more familiar with murders then they are in the local town. The wife of the businessman who is from Chicago realizes that he is better equipped to solve the murder then the local cops, and he is stuck helping out.  This obviously does not sit well with the local white cops and he does not want to be there either.

What makes this movie so great are the performances by Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger as the two cops who do not like each other and are forced to work together. Also, it deals with racism without specifically talking about it. You can tell it with their glances and attitudes. When Sidney Poitier's character realizes that he has certain prejudices that has steered him in the wrong direction of the investigation it makes the point that we all have predisposed ideas about certain people without being very preachy.  The music by Quincy Jones was perfect for the movie and really set the tone.   It is the first detective mystery to win best picture and in my opinion deserved it.

A lot of people think that The Graduate was the best picture that year and it did win best director for Mike Nichol.  It also makes a lot of lists of best of all time. But I personally did not like that movie. Maybe it is because my dad absolutely hates that movie and it is the movie that he cites for not going to see movies anymore. In his opinion if that was the best movie of the year and it was bad then he doesn't want to see the other movies. It's a valid argument but I don't think it any reason to stop seeing movies. But that is just my opinion.  Also about Bonnie and Clyde another movie that didn't really do anything for me.  I guess at the time it was really controversial because of all the violence, but compared to modern film it is nothing. I with I could have seen it when it first came out but now it just doesn't seem that exciting. 

The biggest snub that year was to Sidney Poitier who was in two of the movies nominated for Best Picture and didn't get nominated for either one.  Rod Steiger won  Actor for In the Heat of the Night and Katherine Hepburn won best Actress for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.  Also, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was nominated for Best Actor(Spencer Tracy), Best Supporting Actor(Cecil Kellaway), and Best Supporting Actress(Beah Richards) who plays Sidney Poitier's mother.  But no nomination for Poitier himself.

Intersting Facts
Also that year the Academy gave Alfred Hitchcock a very deserved lifetime achievement award.
Besides being the first detective movie to win Best Picture it is the only Best Picture winner to go on and inspire a TV show.
AFI 100 Greatest List in 1997 had The Graduate at #7, Bonnie and Clyde at #27, and Guess Who's Comming to Dinner at #99. In 2007 the Graduate was at #27, Bonnie and Clyde was at #42, Guess Who's Comming to Dinner was not on the list but In the Heat of the Night was added at #75.