In the Heat of the Night (film)

In the Heat of the Night
In the Heat of the Night
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Norman Jewison
Screenplay by	Stirling Silliphant
Based on	a novel by John Ball
Produced by	Walter Mirisch
Starring	Sidney Poitier; Rod Steiger; Warren Oates; Lee Grant;
Cinematography	Haskell Wexler, A.S.C.
Edited by	Hal Ashby
Music by	Quincy Jones
Production; company	The Mirisch Corporation
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	August 2, 1967;
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2 million
Box office	$24.4 million

In the Heat of the Night is a 1967 American mystery drama film directed by Norman Jewison, produced by Walter Mirisch, and starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. It tells the story of Virgil Tibbs (Poitier), a Black police detective from Philadelphia, who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation in a small town in Mississippi. The film was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from John Ball's 1965 novel of the same name.

Released by United Artists in August 1967, the film was a widespread critical and commercial success. At the 40th Academy Awards the film was nominated for seven Oscars, winning five including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for Rod Steiger. Quincy Jones' score, featuring a title song performed by Ray Charles, was nominated for a Grammy Award. The success of the film spawned two film sequels featuring Poitier, and a television series of the same name, which aired from 1988 to 1995.

In the Heat of the Night is widely-considered one of the most important American films of the 1960s. The quote "They call me Mister Tibbs!" was listed as number 16 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes, a list of top film quotes. The film also appears on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, a list of the 100 greatest movies in American cinema.^[4] In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[5]

^ "IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (A)". British Board of Film Classification. July 17, 1967. Archived from the original on November 28, 2014. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
^ Balio, Tino (1987). United Artists: The Company that Changed the Film Industry. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-299-11440-4.
^ "In the Heat of the Night, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on December 10, 2007. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
^ "In the Heat of the Night (1967)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved January 23, 2024.
^ "Librarian of Congress Adds 25 Films to National Film Registry" (Press release). Library of Congress. December 17, 2002. Archived from the original on February 5, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2020.