They Call Me Mister Tibbs! | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Gordon Douglas |
Produced by | Executive Producer Walter Mirisch |
Written by | Alan Trustman |
Screenplay by | Alan Trustman James R. Webb |
Starring |
Sidney Poitier Martin Landau Barbara McNair |
Music by | Quincy Jones |
Cinematography | Gerald Perry Finnerman |
Edited by |
Bud Molin Irving Rosenblum |
Production
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Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date
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Running time
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108 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $2,350,000 (US/Canada rentals) |
They Call Me Mister Tibbs!, stylized with emphasis (an underline) on "Mister", is a 1970 DeLuxe Color film. The second installment in a trilogy, the release was preceded by In the Heat of the Night (1967) and followed by The Organization (1971). The movie title was taken from a line in the first film.
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).
Detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), 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 (Juano Hernandez), as well as another man, Woody Garfield (Edward Asner), 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.
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.