1967 Was Sidney Poitier's Pinnacle

Earlier this month, I attended a screening of Blackboard Jungle at the Brattle Theatre as part of a tribute to Sidney Poitier who passed away in January. 

Over the past two nights, I returned to the Brattle to see the three films for which Poitier is best known - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, To Sir, with Love and In The Heat of the Night. 

All three films were released in 1967 with Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and In The Heat of the Night earning Best Picture nominations with In The Heat of the Night. Although Poitier was the centerpiece of all three films, he did not earn an Oscar nomination for any of them although other actors did. Katharine Hepburn won Best Actress for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner while Rod Steiger won Best Actor for In The Heat of the Night and justifiably so. 

Awards or no awards, Sidney Poitier had reached the pinnacle of his success in 1967 and was the most popular movie star in America. A remarkable achievement considering civil rights was still in its nascency. 

While I have seen these films many times on TV, I had not seen them on the big screen. Last night, I saw Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and To Sir, with Love and saw In The Heat of the Night earlier this evening. Here are my observations of each of the three films in the order that I saw them.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Poitier portrays a widowed doctor named John Prentiss who meets and falls in love with Joanna Drayton, a white woman who brings him home to introduce him to her liberal parents Christina and Matt Drayton as played by Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy to inform them of her intent to marry. Their daughter was played by Katharine Houghton, who is Hepburn's niece. As such, this film is as much as Hepburn-Tracy film as it is a Sidney Poitier movie. Indeed, Tracy received top billing for the film. It was to be Hepburn and Tracy's 9th and final film together as Tracy was in severe ill-health. Tracy died only weeks after filming was completed. 

At the time of filming, interracial marriages were illegal in 17 states. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? was released only six months after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional in Loving v. Virginia. Yet attitudes in America weren't so unanimous. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is the resistance to interracial marriage by both whites and African-Americans as demonstrated by the housekeeper Tillie (played by Isabel Sanford who would go onto fame as Louise Jefferson on the sitcom The Jeffersons) as well as Dr. Prentiss' father played by Roy Glenn. 

Dr. Prentiss' mother Mary while fearful supports her son's decision to marry a white woman. Beah Richards' tender performance of Mary Prentiss would earn her a Best Supporting Actress nomination. Interestingly, although Richards played Poitier's mother she was only 7 years older than him. She would also appear alongside Poitier in a small role in In The Heat of the Night. Cecil Kallaway provided a great deal of comic relief as the open minded Monsignor Ryan. Kallaway would also earn an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. 

In many ways, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is presented like a stage play, but was written strictly for the movies. As with any work of art more than 50 years old some aspects of the film will be dated. But Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? is a reminder that 50 years, indeed 55 years, isn't such a long time in the grand scheme of things. There was a time one could go to jail for marrying someone whose skin color was different from your own.

To Sir, with Love

While adapted from E.B. Braithwaite's novel of the same name, To Sir, with Love is in many ways an unofficial sequel to Blackboard Jungle where Poitier goes from student to teacher. In both movies, Mr. Dadier (as played by Glenn Ford) and Poitier's Mr. Thackeray (a.k.a. Sir) find themselves who have the challenge of teaching kids who don't want to learn and are eager to look for more attractive work. Dadier and Thackeray gradually win over their respective classes with Dadier showing a cartoon film of Jack and The Beanstalk while Thackeray takes them to London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Both Dadier and Thackeray have a single hold out in Artie West and Bert Denham played by Vic Morrow and Christian Roberts, respectively. Dadier fights West and Thackeray fights Denham. But the similarity ends there as West is a psychopath beyond redemption while Denham realizes he's no match for Thackeray and decides he must grow up. Also there were no female students in Blackboard Jungle and thus Lulu to break out into "To Sir, with Love" at the drop of a hat.

There is one interesting contrast between Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and To Sir, With Love. While most of the characters in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner are shocked that a white woman would wed a black man, in To Sir, with Love the white women fancy Mr. Thackeray whether it's student Pamela Dare (as played by Judy Geeson), fellow teacher Miss Blanchard (as played by Suzy Kendall) and even the matronly kiosk lady (as played by Rita Webb) who flirts with Thackeray on the bus in the opening scene of the film. Of course, To Sir, with Love was set in Britain and while the film depicted some racial tension, interracial romances or at least the implication of them weren't so taboo on the other side of the pond.

In The Heat of the Night 

This was the best of the Poitier's triumvirate of triumph in 1967. The pace of In The Heat of the Night is slower, more deliberate and suspenseful down to every drop of sweat. Poitier plays Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia police officer who is traveling through Mississippi to visit his mother when he finds himself accused of murder and is brought into to see Sheriff Gillespie as played by Rod Steiger. Soon Sheriff Gillespie learns that Mr. Tibbs is a police officer and a homicide investigator. Gillespie is torn because he knows he is over his head and needs every bit of Tibbs' help as the wife of the murder victim (as played by Lee Grant) threatens to stop building a factory in the town unless Tibbs is kept on the case. At the same time, Gillespie cannot alienate the town's segregationist majority who are already suspicious of him in the first place.

While directed by Norman Jewison, it is the editing of Hal Ashby which sets it apart from Poitier's other films from 1967. Ashby was to In The Heat of the Night what Alan Parsons was to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon. Ashby, of course, would go on to a successful career as a director with films like Harold and Maude (which I saw at the Brattle last month), The Last Detail, Bound for Glory and Being There. Of these three films, In The Heat of the Night is best experienced on the big screen.

Perhaps not surprising, In The Heat of The Night was the best attended of the three films though far from a sellout. The screening of To Sir, with Love had fewer than 10 people. Given the legacy of Sidney Poitier and his recent passing, I thought there would be more interest in these films. 

Regardless, all three films show Sidney Poitier's command of the screen as a stoic figure who can convey authority even with a softness in his voice or a single gesture. Poitier's power shall stand the test of time.