Set in the racist South (Sparta in Mississippi), Sidney Poitier, a police officer from the North, investigates a murder case in uneasy alliance with Rod Steiger, the bigoted police chief.

The famous scene where Poitier slaps a powerful plantation owner in the face was only included in the film because Poitier insisted. “I'll make this movie for you,” he said, “if you guarantee that when he slaps me I will slap him right back, and this will play in every version of the movie.”

In the Heat of the Night won the Oscar for Best Picture and is one of the most enduring films of civil rights era.