Film director Norman Jewison dies – Culture

Of course, the tough Rod Steiger was in a losing position as police chief of Sparta, Mississippi, who was supposed to solve a murder and first had the elegant Sidney Poitier arrested, who was in transit. Poitier was elegant, smart, confident – and a black man. And he happened to be a cop from the big city of Philadelphia who ended up helping Steiger find the real murderer. “In the Heat of the Night” was one of Norman Jewison’s greatest successes, earning five Oscars and a reputation as one of America’s strongest early statements against racial discrimination. Maybe the Steiger character is the more exciting one, Hollywood loved hillbillies, failures, losers.