BEFORE: Yeah, I could have saved this for my upcoming virtual road-trip around the U.S., but as long as I'm into police films, I'll check out how the law does things down in Mississippi. And since this is another Best Picture Oscar-winner, it's time for a numbers check - after this I will have seen 53 out of the 84 Best Picture winners, 74 out of the American Film Institute's top 100 American movies, and 274 of the alleged "1001 Movies to See Before You Die". I'm liking my numbers, though there are still 255 films on the list to see.
Linking from "Internal Affairs", Faye Grant was also in "The January Man" with Rod Steiger (last seen in "On the Waterfront").
THE PLOT: An African-American detective is asked to investigate a murder in a racist southern town.
AFTER: This film works as an early portrayal of police forensics - a lot of this might be old hat to us now, after watching so many seasons of "CSI" and "Law & Order", but there was a time not too long ago when criminal science didn't extend too far beyond dusting for fingerprints. As a visiting police officer who is familiar with techniques that the local police force is unaware of, Virgil Tibbs is quite literally the smartest man in town. And as a homicide expert, his skills are needed to solve the murder of a prominent town benefactor.
Problem is, he's black in a society that barely acknowledges civil rights - and begrudgingly at that. Being black is practically a crime in itself, or at least a justification for random violence - he has to work carefully around the taboos inherent in the racially-charged situations. Some townspeople refuse to even be in the same room as him - so how can he gain the respect he deserves?
He does it by having his theories proven correct, time and time again. Which is nice to see in a film, good old-fashioned stuff like reconstructing a crime scene, or retracing a person's steps, and having that pay off. True, he gets a little blinded by racial prejudices himself, and starts accusing the town's most prominent plantation owner, but he does backtrack and correct himself. Again, the pacing is similar to "Law & Order", because the first person they arrest on those shows is never the perp anyway.
Yeah, it's a bit depressing to see such blatant racism on display, and this really wasn't that long ago, but I'll bet it was accurate. I think it's a bit naive to assume there's not much homicide in a small Southern town, and the film does resort to caricature at some points, but it is was it is. Er, was. Good to see a cop with persistence and tenacity to stick with the case until the right person was charged.
Also starring Sidney Poitier (last seen in "The Jackal" with Richard Gere, damn, I missed that connection!), Warren Oates (last seen in "1941"), Lee Grant, William Schallert.
RATING: 6 out of 10 orchids
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