They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970)

Sidney Poitier is seldom praised as a pioneer of blaxploitation, but that’s what he is in They Call Me Mister Tibbs. This sequel’s title is cribbed from its groundbreaking predecessor, In the Heat of the Night, but similarities end there, since this engaging murder mystery owes more to "blaxpo" and the urban police procedurals that dominated film and TV in the early 1970s. Poitier’s got plenty of proto-funk charisma (and a Quincy Jones groove) as San Francisco detective Virgil Tibbs, dominating his Caucasian colleagues with quiet fortitude and sure-fire instincts. His latest case is rife with likely suspects, including a Bible-thumping reformer (Martin Landau) and a sleazy landlord (Anthony Zerbe). It’s a routine plot by latter-day standards, but director Gordon Douglas enlivens it with solid character details: Poitier’s scenes with his defiant young son (George Spell) are genuinely moving, and performances are uniformly superb. Poitier did another sequel, The Organization (1971), ending his Tibbs trilogy on a high note of success.

1970, colour, 108 minutes