Word: heats
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...latest, and critically most successful, picture is In the Heat of the Night, which presents Rod Stinger as a lonely Southern sheriff and Sidney Poitier as a homicide expert from up North. At the movie's start, Poi tier is passing through a small Mississippi town when Stinger's deputy mistakenly charges him with murder. Poi tier dramatically reveals his identity as a police officer (to a mixture of catcalls and enthusiastic screams from the audience). and eventually shows Steiger how to solve a murder...
...mystery, Heat of the Night won't stand up Detective Poi tier does most of his investigating off screen, and several critical links to the murder's solution are left unexplained. Apparently realizing this, Jewison has defended the picture's weakness as a melodrama by saying, in effect, that it isn't one. He suggests that the real subject matter is the relationship between Poi tier and Stinger, and that the loose construction of the mystery throws proper emphasis onto that relationship. As long as this argument wasn't devised after the picture's completion, one can assume that Jewison...
...other hand, the murder in Heat of the Night does seem a bit more earthly than most movie crimes. And the slow, confusing solution probably has more to do with real police-work than its neat, ingenious melo-drama counterparts. Only Jewison isn't content with naturalism either; his detective relies excessively on a rather implausible knowledge of orchids, pules equally obscure and unlikely reservoirs of genius. Perhaps the most extreme example in this regard is the moment when Poitier snatches a weed off the accelerator of the victim's car and, a knowing smile on his face, says "Osmunda...
Still, watching Steiger is a joy, and just as his performance is a triumph of television acting, In the Heat of the Night is a big, wonderful TV show...
...recent years, summer music has moved steadily indoors for air-conditioned comfort. But this season more and more Americans are defying chiggers and heat for the trill, the toot and the oompah-pah of old-fashioned outdoor summer band concerts...