Norman Jewison died last month, so no surprise that Turner Classic Movies was quick to run In the Heat of the Night, which Jewison directed. As Morgan Freeman might say, this 1967 film is really about American cinematic history.
Jewison outlived star Sidney Poitier, suspected of a murder in a southern town, but as he explained, “I’m a police officer” and “they call me Mr. Tibbs.” Poitier considered the film an acting lesson from Rod Steiger as police chief Bill Gillespie, who at one point tells Tibbs, “I have the motive which is money, I have the body which is dead!” Steiger left the set in 2002 but at this writing Quincy Jones is still around.
The veteran trumpeter and arranger wrote the music to “Fowl Owl on the Prowl,” which plays on the juke box in one scene. For the signature song, Jones turned to former bandmate Ray Charles, another artist far beyond the confines of Black History Month. As a child, Ray listened to the Grand Ole Opry, and his Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was a huge hit. As Ray once explained to a television host, “’My baby left me, so I went out and got drunk.’ That’s the blues, man.” Check out Ray on “Blues in the Night,” written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer.
Ray often featured soulful saxman David Newman, the soloist on “Ain’t Misbehavin” from Ray’s album The Genius After Hours. Fans may be unaware that Ray also played saxophone. Check him out fronting his own band on alto back in 1963. They didn’t call him “genius” for nothing, and he never knocked the nation where he came to prominence. Should that be doubted, check out Ray on “America the Beautiful,” and there’s a connection here with In the Heat of the Night, when Ray sang:
But hold on, won’t be long
Just you be strong
And it’ll be all right
If things are to be all right in America, the people must heed Ray’s plea to:
Crown thy good, with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.
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