Every Best Picture Oscar Winner Ranked Worst To Best

The centrepiece of this Norman Jewison drama is the great Sidney Poitier, cast here as the formidable detective Virgil Tibbs as he investigates a suspicious death and combats the horrors of racism in the South with integrity and moral fortitude.

All these years later, In the Heat of the Night lacks the punch it had back in 1967, handling its themes of race and power with less confidence than later films of its ilk, but a crackling script and the chemistry of Poitier and Rod Steiger ensure it's aged like fine wine as a dramatic procedural with a vital message.