They Call Me Mister Tibbs!
- "Mr. Tibbs" redirects here. For the fictional butler, see the article on The BFG.
They Call Me Mister Tibbs! | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Executive Producer Walter Mirisch |
Produced by | Herbert Hirschman |
Written by |
Alan Trustman James R. Webb |
Starring |
Sidney Poitier Martin Landau Barbara McNair |
Music by | Quincy Jones |
Cinematography | Gerald Perry Finnerman |
Edited by | Production Company Mirisch Productions |
Distributed by | United Artists, Mirisch Productions, Inc. |
Release dates |
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Running time | 108 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $2,350,000 (US/ Canada rentals)[1] |
They Call Me Mister Tibbs!, stylized with emphasis (an underline) on "Mister", is a 1970 film, a sequel to 1967's In the Heat of the Night. The title was taken from a line in the first film.[2][3]
Sidney Poitier reprised his role of police detective Virgil Tibbs, though in this sequel, Tibbs is working for the San Francisco Police rather than the Philadelphia Police (as in the original film) or the Pasadena Police (as in the novels).
Plot
Detective Virgil Tibbs, now a lieutenant with the San Francisco police, is assigned to investigate the murder of a prostitute. A prime suspect is Rev. Logan Sharpe (Martin Landau), a liberal street preacher and political organizer, who insists to Tibbs that he was merely visiting the hooker in a professional capacity, advising her spiritually.
Tibbs questions a janitor from the victim's building, Mealie, as well as another man, Woody Garfield, who might have been the woman's pimp. Suspicion falls on a man named Rice Weedon (Anthony Zerbe), who takes umbrage and is shot by Tibbs in self-defense.
Tibbs concludes that Sharpe really must be the culprit. Sharpe confesses but requests Tibbs give him some time to complete his work on one last political issue. Told this wouldn't be possible, Sharpe takes his own life.
Cast
- Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs
- Martin Landau as Logan Sharpe
- Barbara McNair as Valerie Tibbs
- Anthony Zerbe as Rice Weedon
- Edward Asner as Woody Garfield
- Jeff Corey as Captain Marden
- Norma Crane as Marge Garfield
- Juano Hernandez as Mealie Williamson
- David Sheiner as Lieutenant Kenner
- Beverly Todd as Puff
- Ted Gehring as Sergeant Deutsch
- Linda Towne as Joy Sturges
- Garry Walberg as Medical Examiner
- George Spell as Andy Tibbs
- Wanda Spell as Ginger Tibbs
Production
Quincy Jones wrote the score, as he did with In the Heat of the Night, although the tone of the music in both is markedly different. The previous film, owing to its setting, had a country and bluesy sound, whereas his work for this film was in the funk milieu that would become Jones' trademark in the early 1970s.
The film's title was taken from Virgil's line in In the Heat of the Night.
It was followed by a third film called The Organization (1971).
The film was the last appearance of veteran actor Juano Hernández, who died in July 1970, a few days after the film premiered.
Reception
Released in 1970, the film did not attract the same response as In the Heat of the Night.
The film has a 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of June 2009.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ "Big Rental Films of 1970", Variety, 6 January 1971 p 11
- ↑ Encyclopedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture and ... Abbe A. Debolt, James S. Baugess - 2011 Page 311 "Tibbs and Gillespie have moved from the racially charged scene in which Poitier utters the film's iconic line "They call me Mister Tibbs ... the role of "Mister Tibbs" in They Call Me MISTER Tibbs (1970) and The Organization (1971), was not nominated."
- ↑ I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History 2008 -- Page 313 "We had done reasonably well with They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! and we still had another option for a Virgil Tibbs picture with Sidney Poitier."
- ↑ They Call Me Mister Tibbs! Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
External links
- They Call Me Mister Tibbs! at the Internet Movie Database
- They Call Me Mister Tibbs! at AllMovie
- They Call Me Mister Tibbs! at the TCM Movie Database
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