“Boy it would give me a world of satisfaction to horsewhip you, Virgil.”
In 1967 it was not only unusual to have a non-white actor in a leading role, it was nearly unheard of. It would have been easy to make Chief Gillespie’s character a stereotypical, loudmouthed Southern bigot, but screenwriter Sterling Silliphant gave him much more depth than that. By the same turn, Tibbs is shown to be a flawed man as well, with his pride and cleverness getting in his way. As the film unfolds, Gillespie and Tibbs slowly come to the realization that they have more in common than they’d like to admit and even develop a begrudging respect for each other. The movie could easily have been obvious and heavy-handed but instead it is subtle and character-driven. The dialog at the sheriff’s house came out of improvisations between Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. Of all the films he’s done this is Poitier’s favorite. He recalled, “On weekends when we went out to a movie or dinner, he (Steiger) remained completely immersed in the character of the Southern sheriff, speaking with the same accent and walking with the same gait, on and off camera. I was astonished at the intensity of his involvement with the character.” Set in a hot Mississippi summer but filmed during Autumn in Illinois, the actors had to keep ice chips in their mouths (and spit them out before takes) to prevent their breath from appearing during the night scenes. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Actor (Steiger), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Sound. In 2002 it was selected for the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
