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In the Heat of the Night: Film Synopsis Essay

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In the Heat of the Night made it’s debut appearance in 1967 and received and Oscar for Best Picture. The rustic and quiet town of Sparta, Mississippi is the setting for the movie. The story starts off with a cop making his nightly rounds when he discovers a murdered body on the ground. The deceased belonged to Philip Colbert, a well-off man from Chicago who was planning to build a factory in town. This murder causes an undesired commotion in the rural town. Police Chief Bill Gillespie finds himself burdened to catch the killer of Philip Colbert.
An African-American from the north, Virgil Tibbs, is picked up at the train station by a racist cop. Tibbs was just passing through the town, when interrogated and taken for having a significant …show more content…

They end up at a diner, where the officer had stopped, and the owner, Henshaw, refused to serve Tibbs because of his skin color. Tibbs notices that the officer changed his route, which leads Gillespie to question the officer of the murder. Gillespie and Tibbs discover that Sam made a large deposit to the bank the day after the murder, along with a local named Purdy filed a charge against Sam for getting his under-age sister, Delores, pregnant. Sam is arrested, without Tibbs approval. During Delores’ interrogation, Purdy is outraged that Tibbs was there because he is black. Purdy organizes a lynch gang to get back at Tibbs. Sam’s name is cleared after Tibbs discovers that Sam could not have been driving two different cars at the same time. Tibbs acts on his instincts and finds the abortionist that Delores was going to. The abortionist tells Tibbs that someone else paid for the abortion; Tibbs pursues Delores outside for more questioning. The killer, who is the man from the diner that refused Tibbs, Henshaw, confronts Tibbs. With impeccable timing, Purdy’s gang shows up and holds Tibbs at gunpoint. Tibbs proves to Purdy that Henshaw got Delores pregnant, not Sam. The tables-turns and Purdy attacks Henshaw, but Henshaw kills Purdy in self-defense. Henshaw confesses to his crime and said he never meant to kill Colbert and only wanted to rob him for money for Delores’ abortion. The story

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