Rod Steiger credited as playing...
Chief Bill Gillespie
- Gillespie: Virgil? That's a funny name for a nigger boy that comes from Philadelphia. What do they call you up there?
- Virgil Tibbs: They call me MISTER TIBBS!
- Chief Gillespie: Just once in my life, I'm gonna own my temper. I'm telling you that you're gonna stay here. You're gonna stay here if I have to go inside and call your chief of police and have him remind you of what he told you to do. But I don't think I have to do that, you see? No, because you're so damn smart. You're smarter than any white man. You're just gonna stay here and show us all. You've got such a big head that you could never live with yourself unless you could put us all to shame. You wanna know something, Virgil? I don't think that you could let an opportunity like that pass by.
- [upon the suggestion that he may have murdered Colbert, Endicott slaps Tibbs across the face. Tibbs promptly slaps him back. Endicott is positively shocked]
- Eric Endicott: Gillespie?
- Chief Gillespie: Yeah.
- Eric Endicott: You saw it.
- Chief Gillespie: I saw it.
- Eric Endicott: Well, what are you gonna do about it?
- Chief Gillespie: I don't know.
- Eric Endicott: I'll remember that.
- [to Tibbs]
- Eric Endicott: There was a time when I could've had you shot.
- Mayor Webb Schubert: Bill... what's made you change your mind about Tibbs?
- Gillespie: Who says I have?
- Mayor Webb Schubert: [referring to Tibbs slapping Endicott] Last Chief we had... he'd have shot Tibbs one second after he slapped Endicott, claim self-defense.
- Gillespie: Now, look. I got no wife. I got no kids. Boy, I got a town that don't want me. And I got an air conditioner that I have to oil myself, and a desk with a busted leg. And on top of that, I got this, uh... place. Now, don't you think that'd drive a man to takin' a few drinks? I'll tell you a secret. Nobody comes here. Never.
- Mrs. Leslie Colbert: I came by to make it as clear as I possibly can: that I do not want the Negro officer taken off this case.
- Mayor Webb Schubert: Negro officer?
- Chief Gillespie: Yeah, well he, uh... he comes from up North, you see, and he was, uh, kinda... passing through...
- Mrs. Leslie Colbert: I don't care what he is. If it wasn't for him, your impartial chief of police would still have the wrong man behind bars. I want that officer given a free hand, otherwise I will pack up my husband's engineers... and leave you... to yourselves.
- 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!
- [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.
- 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!
- Gillespie: [on telephone to Tibbs' chief] I do want to thank you for offering such a powerful piece of manpower as Virgil Tibbs.
- Chief Gillespie: Mr. Tibbs! Well Mr. Woods take Mr. Tibbs! Take him down to the depot and I mean boy like now!