General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

They Call Me Mister Tibbs!

They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (also styled They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!) is a 1970 American crime drama directed by Gordon Douglas and the first theatrical sequel to In the Heat of the Night (1967), with Sidney Poitier returning as Detective Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs, now working for the San Francisco homicide squad and investigating the murder of a prostitute whose death implicates his friend, the Reverend Logan Sharpe (Martin Landau).¹^•² The title takes its name from the line Poitier delivers in the first film, which the American Film Institute ranked #16 on its list of 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time.³

Key fact	Detail
Release	Opened 8 July 1970 in New York City; Los Angeles opening 12 August 1970¹
Director / writers	Gordon Douglas; screenplay by Alan R. Trustman and James R. Webb¹
Lead cast	Sidney Poitier (Virgil Tibbs), Martin Landau (Rev. Logan Sharpe), Barbara McNair (Valerie Tibbs), Anthony Zerbe (Rice Weedon)¹
Music	Quincy Jones⁴
Runtime and rating	108 minutes; rated GP by the MPAA on release (later listings show R)¹^•²
Early business	$2.35 million in film rentals in its first six months, following lukewarm reviews⁵
Series position	Second of three Virgil Tibbs theatrical films, followed by The Organization (1971)³

Spoilers

Story and setting

The film moves Tibbs from the small-town Mississippi setting of In the Heat of the Night to San Francisco. An anonymous phone call accuses his close friend, community activist Reverend Logan Sharpe, of murdering a prostitute, and Tibbs takes on the case; the last person seen with the victim was Sharpe, who admits having visited her.¹^•² Around the investigation, the script builds domestic conflict: Tibbs's wife Valerie (Barbara McNair) wants him to spend more time with her and their children, and the couple has a rebellious adolescent son.²^•⁴ Other suspects include the building owner and pimp Rice Weedon (Anthony Zerbe).⁶

Production

After the 1967 film, Poitier reportedly stated that he would not reprise the role, but an 8 October 1969 Variety item announced he had changed his mind and agreed to the sequel, to be directed by Gordon Douglas and written by Alan R. Trustman. His deal reportedly entailed "a large profit participation," and a July 1970 Variety brief noted he had taken an advanced police detective procedures course in preparation.¹ Donald Sutherland was considered for a role, according to a 9 October 1969 Los Angeles Sentinel brief.¹

Principal photography began on 17 November 1969, with location shooting in San Francisco followed by filming in Los Angeles. Daily Variety announced on 14 January 1970 that production had been completed under schedule, and Douglas allowed Poitier to direct the final scene, in which he did not appear.¹ The picture was produced by Herbert Hirschman for Mirisch Productions, Inc., with Walter Mirisch as executive producer, photographed by Gerald Finnerman, and distributed by United Artists.¹

Reception and style

Critics received the film lukewarmly.⁵ On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 50% Tomatometer from 6 reviews and a 35% Popcornmeter from more than 1,000 audience ratings.² Reviewers repeatedly measured it against its predecessor. Turner Classic Movies' summary notes that the film dispenses with much of the first film's racial complexity, since Rod Steiger's Chief Gillespie no longer serves as Poitier's foil, and that with Quincy Jones's funky score and Tibbs's early-1970s fashions it "almost has the feel of a 'blaxploitation' film from the period."⁴ Time Out called it a routine thriller in which the script studiously avoids racial issues.⁷ A common criticism, voiced by Matt Brunson of Film Frenzy, is that Tibbs is stripped of much of his personality and turned into a workaholic cop with a troubled personal life.² The character's biography also differs from the first film; IMDb's trivia notes that Tibbs is presented with an entirely different life and career history than in In the Heat of the Night.⁸

The Tibbs series and legacy

The film is the middle entry of the Virgil Tibbs trilogy. A third entry was in development by early 1970, and Poitier reprised the role for the final time in The Organization (1971).⁵ According to AFI, Poitier's Tibbs marked the first instance of a leading-role series for an African American police detective, and the character remained a fixture in popular culture for nearly 30 years on screen and in the literary source by novelist John Ball; Howard Rollins later played Tibbs in the television drama In the Heat of the Night, which aired from 1988 through 1995.³

The film also marked the final screen appearance of the character actor Juano Hernandez, acclaimed as Hollywood's first Afro-Latino movie star, who died on 17 July 1970, just over one week after the release.³^•⁵ AFI's retrospective also records the criticism, including James Baldwin's in The Devil Finds Work (1976), that the Mister Tibbs series endorsed an apologetic perspective of its white, liberal filmmakers, and that Poitier was not recognized at the time for his contribution while co-star Rod Steiger received the Best Actor Oscar for the first film.³

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026