In the Heat of the Night

Los Angeles: The Mirisch Corporation, 1966. Revised First Draft script for the 1967 film. Laid in is a Call Sheet from the production, dated Tuesday, November 29, 1966.

Based on John Ball's 1965 novel. An African American police detective from Philadelphia is recruited to help solve a murder in a small, bigoted Mississippi town. Winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor for Rod Steiger, nominated for two others. After the success of the film version, the characters were developed further for a police procedural television series in 1988, developed by James Lee Barrett, and starring Carroll O'Connor and Howard Rollins, which aired on NBC, then CBS, from 1988 to 1995.

Set in the fictional town of Sparta, Mississippi, and shot largely on location in Illinois. Poitier insisted the movie be filmed in the North because of a 1964 incident in Mississippi, in which he and Harry Belafonte had been run off the road and almost killed by Klansmen while in the state to support the SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee).

Goldenrod titled wrappers, noted as REVISED FIRST DRAFT on the front wrapper, rubber-stamped copy No. 84, dated July 1, 1966. Title page present, dated July 1, 1966, noted as REVISED FIRST DRAFT, with credits for screenwriter Stirliing Silliphant. 134 leaves, with last page of text numbered 140. Mimeograph duplication, rectos only, with blue, pink, and white revision pages throughout, dated variously between 7/27/66 and 8/10/66. Pages with damp stain on top right of last several pages, else Near Fine, wrapper Very Good plus, bound with two gold brads.

Call Sheet, 8.5 x 14 inches, folded horizontally. Near Fine

National Film Registry. Criterion Collection 959. Penzler, 101 Greatest Films of Mystery and Suspense.

[Book #152454]