San Francisco has opened its golden gates for Virgil in the first sequel to "In the Heat of the Night", making him a police lieutenant and putting him in charge of a controversial murder case involving a prostitute. Much of the film features him with his wife, Barbara McNair, and his children, both good kids, but still getting into typical juvenile scrapes and the kids not always getting along. The film heads all over the San Francisco area including a chase over the Golden Gate Bridge, up and down hills, and all across Market Street.
While the first one dealt with serious racial issues in the south, those are almost non-existent here as Tibbs is presented as someone everyone respects. That takes out a major piece of the conflict and the relevance, making the big issue of his confliction between his work and home life dominate the film than what headlines would have shown in the early 70's.
George Spell as young Andy Tibbs is good in two scenes with Poitier, first when he's caught smoking with his white friend and later on being disciplined by him, resulting in physical punishment followed by hugs and tears. His sister Wanda plays their younger child. Juano Hernandez, as the handyman in the apartment building of the victim, Martin Landau as a powerful preacher of a megachurch and Beverly Todd as the scantily clad, flirtatious girlfriend of suspect Anthony Zerbe are memorable too. Norma Crane, who would soon be Golde in the film of "Fiddler on the Roof", has a small part. Too bad her director from that (and director of "In the Heat of the Night") didn't direct this.
While this is entertaining and a definite crowd pleaser, it lacks the impact of "In the Heat of the Night" because it comes off as a barely above average typical crime drama where the action isn't anything new, and Tibbs could easily be called a black Tony Rome or the other detectives that Sinatra had been playing, or Steve McQueen's Frank Bullitt. Having him playing Tibbs once again didn't add a legacy to that groundbreaking character that got cheers for slapping a bigot in its Oscar winning predecessor.
While the first one dealt with serious racial issues in the south, those are almost non-existent here as Tibbs is presented as someone everyone respects. That takes out a major piece of the conflict and the relevance, making the big issue of his confliction between his work and home life dominate the film than what headlines would have shown in the early 70's.
George Spell as young Andy Tibbs is good in two scenes with Poitier, first when he's caught smoking with his white friend and later on being disciplined by him, resulting in physical punishment followed by hugs and tears. His sister Wanda plays their younger child. Juano Hernandez, as the handyman in the apartment building of the victim, Martin Landau as a powerful preacher of a megachurch and Beverly Todd as the scantily clad, flirtatious girlfriend of suspect Anthony Zerbe are memorable too. Norma Crane, who would soon be Golde in the film of "Fiddler on the Roof", has a small part. Too bad her director from that (and director of "In the Heat of the Night") didn't direct this.
While this is entertaining and a definite crowd pleaser, it lacks the impact of "In the Heat of the Night" because it comes off as a barely above average typical crime drama where the action isn't anything new, and Tibbs could easily be called a black Tony Rome or the other detectives that Sinatra had been playing, or Steve McQueen's Frank Bullitt. Having him playing Tibbs once again didn't add a legacy to that groundbreaking character that got cheers for slapping a bigot in its Oscar winning predecessor.