In the Heat of the Night
Black detective Virgil Tibbs must prove his innocence and catch a killer in a hostile Southern town, while battling entrenched racism and a skeptical police chief whose cooperation becomes the only chance for justice.
“They got a murder on their hands. They don’t know what to do with it.”
Synopsis
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of the small town of Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs demonstrates not only his own innocence but also that of another man, he teams up with Gillespie to pursue the real killer. Their investigation leads them through all levels of the town's society, with Tibbs earning both enemies and unexpected allies as he seeks the truth.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 39
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Hal AshbyShot by Haskell WexlerScored by Quincy Jones
Box Office
1967 · Box office
💰 Box-office hit — grossed 14× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$27.4M
Also known as
- In der Hitze der Nachtde
- Dans la chaleur de la nuitfr
- La calda notte dell'ispettore Tibbsit
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Cast & Crew
39 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Warren Oates
as Officer Sam Wood
Lee Grant
as Mrs. Colbert
Sidney Poitier
as Det. Virgil Tibbs
Rod Steiger
as Chief Bill Gillespie
Larry Gates
as Eric Endicott
James Patterson
as Mr. Purdy
William Schallert
as Mayor Schubert
Beah Richards
as Mama Caleba
Peter Whitney
as Courtney
Kermit Murdock
as Henderson
Anthony James
as Ralph
Scott Wilson
as Harvey Oberst
Supporting cast
19Quentin Dean
as Delores Purdy
Larry D Mann
as Watkins
Matt Clark
as Packy
Arthur Malet
as Ulam
Fred Stewart
as Dr. Stuart
Timothy Scott
as Shagbag
William Watson
as McNeil
Eldon Quick
as Charles Hawthorne
Jester Hairston
as Endicott's Butler
Stuart Nisbet
as Shuie
Khalil Bezaleel
as Jess
Peter Masterson
as Fryer
Phil Adams
as 1st Tough
Nikita Knatz
as 2nd Tough
Sam Reese
as Clerk
Jack Teter
as Philip Colbert (uncredited)
Alan Oppenheimer
as Ted Appleton (uncredited)
Clegg Hoyt
as Deputy (uncredited)
Buzz Barton
as Conductor (uncredited)
Directors
1Writers
2Producers
1Other crew
4Parents Guide
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