In The Heat Of The Night - Possibly Steiger's best performance!

[Raphph]

As a tribute to Rod Steiger who sadly died last week, I've reviewed In The Heat Of The Night for DVD Times, the review can be found by clicking here (http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/index.cgi?page=Review&id=940&story=3372).

[Assilem23]

Good review. I don't believe In The Heat Of The Night is his best performance - check out The Pawnbroker.

[APPRIA40WR]

I'd say Steiger's performance was 'stagey' in The Pawnbroker (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0059575) and the character was far from being likeable. I couldn't connect.

He's on fire though In The Heat of The Night and his characterisation is very amusing and a poke in the eye (or maybe shot in the arm) to all those one horse town sheriffs.

Excellent release too from MGM DVD.

[John Hodson]

Another vote for the very powerful The Pawnbroker (perhaps the familiarty of ITHOTN is breeding a little contempt); and am I the only one that liked The Illustrated Man?

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So many films, so little time...

[Tiffany Bradford]

Originally posted by John Hodson
and am I the only one that liked The Illustrated Man?

I loved the Illustrated Man :D

[APPRIA40WR]

I don't recall seeing The Illustrated Man (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0064473) -will have to catch it as the story looks interesting.

In choosing ITHOTN I'm not necessarily saying it's Steiger's best performance -I'd say it's his best film for me to watch and enjoy. After all he's had some great performances in some not very good films (just like Brando).

[Mike]

I think Steiger's best performance is in "Doctor Zhivago", simply because he takes that giant pile of slop and shakes some life into it - even if he is patently playing in a different, much more entertaining film. But my favourite Steiger performances are in "In The Heat of The Night", "The Pawnbroker" and "No Way To Treat A Lady" (a terrible film but Steiger is great in it). He's good in "The Sergeant" too, but the film deserves to be totally forgotten.

[Raphph]

Originally posted by Mike
I think Steiger's best performance is in "Doctor Zhivago"

That's a very good claim, and I'm often surprised that hardly anyone mentions the fact that Tom Courtenay was undeservedly nominated over him for the Oscar. Steiger as Komarovsky is the most memorable character by far in the whole film.

Originally posted by APPRIA40WR
I don't recall seeing The Illustrated Man -will have to catch it as the story looks interesting. "

Off the top of my head the novel is by Ray Bradbury and is far better than the cardboard film adaptation. It's the same with Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" and Harry Harrison's "Make Room! Make Room!" - Yes, the film adaptations "The Omega Man" and "Soylent Green" are cult favourites of mine, but are both very weak when compared to the fantastic original novels.

[John Hodson]

Originally posted by Raphph


Off the top of my head the novel is by Ray Bradbury and is far better than the cardboard film adaptation.

Bradbury has been particularly badly treated on film don't you think, though I thought The Illustrated Man caught the nature of the novel - a series of short stories book-ended by the eponymous Steiger - fairly well.

Thought Steiger, despite his war with Leone, was also excellent in Fistful of Dynamite, a terrible title for what I thought was a terrific film; damn, now that really did deserve a release with a commentary track.

He couldn't do accents as well as he obviously thought he could (his 'oirish' accents for instance), but for some strange reason, he always seemed to get away with it. God bless him
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So many films, so little time...

[JoelCairo]

I watched In The Heat Of The Night yesterday and really enjoyed it. I saw it when it first came out and was immediately convinced it would stand the test of time. (it was released in the U.K at about the same time as Bonnie And Clyde which everyone except me raved about. I thought In The Heat of The Night deserved the critical acclaim and that Bonnie and Clyde was massively overrated. I still do. I have not changed my mind at all in the intervening 40 years.)

Rod Steiger's performance in In The Heat Of The Night is certainly excellent but is it his best? He was good in Oklahoma! and On The Waterfront and I love his portrayal of the studio boss in The Big Knife. I also like his work in Doctor Zhivago. (On the DVD of Doctor Zhivago, Steiger makes an interesting contribution to the audio commentary. He appears to admire Eddie Fowlie more than he does David Lean.)

[Raigmore]

I also think Rod Steiger gave a great perfomance in ITHOTN but I don't think that it was his best. He was a very good actor and had some great roles like The Pawnbroker and Back From Eternity. But he certainly gave an excellent perfomance as the bigotted Southern cop in In The Heat Of The Night.

But I have mixed feelings about the film itself. True, it was brilliantly atmospheric for the times and the Deep South setting and characters were very convincing. But despite the atmosphere being the main ethos of the film, it still cannot completely cover-up the wafer thin plot that, IMO, could have been a bit more substantial.

[JoelCairo]

I also think Rod Steiger gave a great perfomance in ITHOTN but . . . . I have mixed feelings about the film itself. True, it was brilliantly atmospheric for the times and the Deep South setting and characters were very convincing. But despite the atmosphere being the main ethos of the film, it still cannot completely cover-up the wafer thin plot that, IMO, could have been a bit more substantial.
If one takes the crime investigation as the main story line, then yes the plot is wafer thin but if the narrative is seen as a three part combination, then the story is very substantial. The three parts are the crime element, how Virgil Tibbs functions and survives within a hostile and dangerous environment and how respect and understanding develops between two ostensibly incompatible antagonists.

It is interesting to compare In The Heat Of The Night's depiction of a small Southern town with that in The Chase. The Chase, which is effectively High Noon comes to Peyton Place, was scripted by Lillian Hellman who, judging by her work here, was one of those left-wingers who profess to love and sympathise with "the little people" but who in fact dislike and despise them intensely. Carl Foreman was of course another. (In Britain today, New Labour is chock-a-block full of them!)