In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Sidney Poitier: Det. Virgil Tibbs

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Gillespie : Virgil? That's a funny name for a n***er boy that comes from Philadelphia. What do they call you up there?

  Virgil Tibbs : They call me MISTER TIBBS!

• [last lines] 

  Chief Gillespie : You take care, y'hear?

  Virgil Tibbs : Yeah.

• Tibbs : Now listen, hear me good mama. Please. Don't make me have to send you to jail... There's white time in jail and there's colored time in jail. The worst kind of time you can do is colored time.

• Gillespie : How much they pay you to do their police work?

  Tibbs : A hundred and sixty-two dollars, and thirty-nine cents per week.

  Gillespie : A hundred and sixty-two dollars and thirty-nine cents a week? Well boy! Sam, you take him outside but treat him nice, because a man that makes a hundred and sixty-two dollars and thirty-nine cents a week, we do not want to ruffle him!

• Gillespie : Whatcha hit him with?

  Tibbs : Hit whom?

  Gillespie : "Whom"? "Whom"? Well, you a northern boy? What's a northern boy like you doing all the way down here?

• Chief Gillespie : [regarding Sam Wood's status as a suspect]  We have the motive which is money, and the body which is dead!

  Tibbs : What makes you so sure?

  Chief Gillespie : WHY DO YOU DOUBT IT?

  Tibbs : Because Colbert was killed HERE, driven back to town in his own car and dumped on the street. Sam couldn't have driven two cars!

• [after Chief Gillespie convinced Virgil Tibbs to stay in town and finish the investigation, they both go to a mechanic's place to get Tibbs a car] 

  Chief Gillespie : Jess.

  [Jess, a black mechanic, appears from under the car he is working on] 

  Chief Gillespie : Jess, this is, uh... This is Virgil. He's working for me. Give him something that runs. You fix him up, you hear.

  Jess : What I fix runs. Who pays.

  Chief Gillespie : Police.

  [to Tibbs:] 

  Chief Gillespie : Well, you know where to find me.

  [after Gillespie has left, Jess looks Virgil and his suit up and down] 

  Jess : What you doin' here, man.

  Virgil Tibbs : Policeman.

  Jess : You're a policeman here in Sparta.

  Virgil Tibbs : They've got a murder they don't know what to do with. They need a whipping boy.

  Jess : You got a roof.

  Virgil Tibbs : No. I'll find a Motel.

  [Jess chuckles and picks up Virgil's suitcase] 

  Jess : Viola... We got company.

• Gillespie : You look at bodies all the time in Philadelphia. Why can't you look at this one?

  Tibbs : Why can't you look at it for yourself?

  Gillespie : Because I'm not an expert. OFFICER!

• Tibbs : You're making a big mistake.

  Chief Gillespie : Don't you bet against it.