The winner of the 1967 Oscar for Best Picture, "In the Heat of the Night" is set in a small Mississippi town where an unusual murder has been committed. Rod Steiger plays sheriff Bill Gillespie, a good lawman despite his racial prejudices. When Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), a well-dressed African-American and Philadelphia police detective, comes to town, the two must betray culturally dictated conclusions of the other to grudgingly work together to solve the murder case.