The Sidney Poitier DVD Collection

If nothing else, this DVD set gives us two absolute classics in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and LILIES OF THE FIELD. But since this is Sidney Poitier we're talking about, the three other films collected here are also watchable enough, if not as remarkable or seminal. Sidney Poitier is a great actor, and like all great actors, the man exudes a powerful, magnetic presence. When he's on the screen, your eyes are simply drawn to him and his actions and his words.

Besides his iconic role of Virgil Tibbs, Poitier shifts gears to play, in LILIES OF THE FIELD (1963), a traveling handyman who gets gently badgered by nuns into constructing a chapel and, in FOR LOVE OF IVY, a big city hustler who sets out to seduce a housemaid only to fall in love with her.

"They call me... MISTER Tibbs!" I guess if I can pick only one Sidney Poitier film to watch, the provocative IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT would be it. Racial tensions play out in the southern town of Sparta, Mississippi as black Philly homicide detective Virgil Tibbs, merely passing thru, is accused of murder and clashes with the bigoted local sheriff (a dynamite Rod Steiger). Taut and atmospheric, seething with dangerous undercurrents, and featuring an outstanding mood-evocative score, a gripping mystery, and crackling performances, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is simply, simply not to be missed. On the screen, you could cut the tension between Steiger and Poitier with a knife. Rod Steiger won the Oscar for Best Actor for 1967, but Sidney Poitier was arguably equally deserving.

But Poitier had garnered his own Best Actor Oscar a few years earlier in 1963's LILIES OF THE FIELD. This is a gentle movie, along the lines of COME TO THE STABLE and THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S, and, to be honest, this was a lightweight role for Poitier. LILIES OF THE FIELD comes out of left field, a quirky, sentimental little gem chronicling the amicable war of will between Poitier's cheerful traveling handyman Homer Smith and Lilia Skala's austere Mother Superior Maria who wants Smith to build her and her fellow German nuns a chapel. Poitier is terrific again, but it's Skala's stern performance which injects a welcome note of edginess to this otherwise good-natured heapful of character study and culture clash. Homer Smith's leading the nuns in the "Amen" song is still very much the highlight of the film.

Just because you lift a memorable quote from IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and make it into a movie title doesn't automatically translate to a memorable sequel. Poitier reprises his role of Detective Tibbs in 1970's THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS!, and it's an inferior follow-up. I guess Detective Tibbs had moved on from Philadelphia, because he's now solving crimes in San Francisco. His current case involves the murder of an upscale prostitute, and we also get to see Virgil at home with his wife and kids. It's all a very bland, very routine police procedural when compared to the racial mine field navigated by Virgil during his first screen outing. THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS! is about as socially relevant as Q-tips and there's that unsatisfying resolution and you're left with this empty feeling and that Rod Steiger-shaped hole. Sidney Poitier manages to keep your eyes glued on him, but this is my least favorite film in this collection.

FOR LOVE OF IVY came out in 1968 and was a change of pace for Poitier from his edgier roles, although there's still that dab of social commentary in this romantic dramedy. After nine years of housekeeping for the genial Austin household, Ivy (Abbey Lincoln) seeks a better lot in life and gives her notice of resignation. The Austins panic at the thought of losing Ivy, and the Austin siblings (a young, hippied-out Beau Bridges and the very fine Nan Martin) hatch a plan to retain Ivy by blackmailing handsome trucking executive Jack Parks into dating her. Except that Parks (Poitier) has got his own underhanded angle going on.

Poitier wrote the story and so this must have had a special place in his heart. But FOR LOVE OF IVY doesn't showcase his best stuff. There are dead spots and the hippie/mod stuff comes across as dated. Still, Beau Bridges steals plenty of scenes, and I remember cracking up when he remarks to Poitier in the restaurant: "And besides you're kind of a shady character." - and then he asks Poitier to leave a tip.

One last time for Virgil Tibbs as THE ORGANIZATION rolls around. And, just like its immediate predecessor, this one is a pale follow-up to the original. This time out, Lieutenant Tibbs gets mixed up with a well-meaning bunch of vigilantes that made off with a cache of heroin, this to expose a powerful drug-trafficking cartel. This is a decent police thriller, kicked off by a daring nighttime heist in the opening 13 minutes, and I liked it better than THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS! But, as with that first sequel, this one fails to live up to IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT. Still Poitier's steady presence thumbs up this movie for me. And for Raul Julia fans, that cat is here but without his signature mustache.

How can you put together a collection of Sidney Poitier's films and NOT include such true groundbreakers as 'To Sir, With Love' or the amazing 'Guess Who's Coming To Dinner' - which is not only landmark for it's 'subject matter' but also was Spencer Tracy's last film??? I don't understand it. At first I thought this was going to be a great collection - and it is by virtue of being centered such an amazing man and actor - but it's not the set it could have been... or SHOULD have been. I'd rather buy the collector's editions of the individual films.
The man is a genius - this should have showcased that.

If you love, admire and/or respect Mr. Poiter's early works and want to be sure you have some of them on DVD's of high quality, I have only two words about this classic collection: BUY IT!

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