"They Call Me Mister Tibbs!" is a sorta sequel to "In The Heat of the Night". I say 'sorta' because although it's a sequel and also stars Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs, inexplicably he's now on the San Francisco's police force instead of Philadelphia's and he suddenly has a family. And, you can't just assume he got married and had kids since the last film, as in three years suddenly he has a son who looks like he's about 11 or 12 as well as a younger daughter. I assume they set the story in San Francisco to save money and assume they gave him a family to round out his character...or to fill time on the screen.
The story begins with a violent beating in which a nude woman is killed after she laughs at her lover and his poor performance. Apparently, he can't take it. But who HE is, you do not know and it's Lieutenant Tibbs' job to discover who. Initially, the evidence seems to point to a politically conscious preacher (Martin Landau), who is Tibbs' friend, but because the landlord of the place where the woman was killed is played by Anthony Zerbe, it seems like a safe bet he did it, as, like John Colicos, Zerbe nearly always played the villain! But did he?? It certainly can't be that easy to predict who the killer was.
Unlike the previous film, there are no racial issues in this follow-up.... Tibbs is just a well-respected cop. So, instead of social commentary, the film is more just a straight cop drama...and a pretty good one due to the fine acting by Poitier and the fine supporting cast.
The story begins with a violent beating in which a nude woman is killed after she laughs at her lover and his poor performance. Apparently, he can't take it. But who HE is, you do not know and it's Lieutenant Tibbs' job to discover who. Initially, the evidence seems to point to a politically conscious preacher (Martin Landau), who is Tibbs' friend, but because the landlord of the place where the woman was killed is played by Anthony Zerbe, it seems like a safe bet he did it, as, like John Colicos, Zerbe nearly always played the villain! But did he?? It certainly can't be that easy to predict who the killer was.
Unlike the previous film, there are no racial issues in this follow-up.... Tibbs is just a well-respected cop. So, instead of social commentary, the film is more just a straight cop drama...and a pretty good one due to the fine acting by Poitier and the fine supporting cast.