Really Surprised!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Sidney Poitier walks through role as San Francisco police lieutenant Virgil Tibbs in this second sequel to 1968's "In the Heat of the Night", following "They Call Me Mister Tibbs!" from the previous year. Plot, however, is engrossing and complicated as a multi-racial, anti-drug revolutionary group summons Tibbs to their hideout, hoping to take him into their confidence. They've just pulled off the elaborate robbery of four millions dollars' worth of heroin from the vault of a furniture-making company--unfortunately, they had to kidnap one of the top executives to get the vault open and, after they left, he was murdered. What the revolutionaries were planning to do with the heroin isn't really clear (if it's a shakedown of the drug syndicate they wanted, they'll need a lot more members!). Still, they manage to disrupt everyone involved in the acquisition of the smack, from the suit-and-tie organization in their skyscraper headquarters to their goons on the street to the furniture company's night watchman, who gets shot on his way to the station with Tibbs for questioning. Tibbs agrees to work with the group, which forces him to conceal his knowledge of information from his department as well as from the highly defensive chief of narcotics, whose superior just committed suicide. Poitier isn't convincing interacting with the vigilantes, nor with his superiors, nor with wife Barbara McNair and their two kids; it's a dud performance. The colorful supporting cast of character actors (Raul Julia, Allen Garfield, Bernie Hamilton, Billy "Green" Bush, Dan Travanty, Sheree North, Ron O'Neal, Maxwell Gail Jr.) nearly makes up for the star's lethargy, and the San Francisco locations are an asset. Director Don Medford keeps the scenario busy, but it's activity without a lot of gripping action, the chases and shoot-outs coming right off an assembly-line. ** from ****

You can't teach new tricks to an old dog especially if the oldie's name is Don Medford. Don was an excellent TV director, but as a director of feature films like "The Organization", he was unteachable. Mr. Medford didn't have the slightest idea what a reverse angle was, but he did know how to say, "No way, José!", if his cameraman suggested one. Mr. Medford's favorite shot was a close-up. To Medford, a really good movie was one composed almost entirely of close-ups. I'll admit that this suited the requirements of TV right down to the ground. On a big screen, however, it looks both ugly and ridiculous. Each scene in a Medford film is composed of a multiplicity of close-ups, haphazardly strung together in an extremely jerky and often bewildering manner. It's even hard to identify the baddies, due to Medford's erratic style. There is, however, one scene in this movie that Medford actually got right – or maybe he was away that day? I refer to the excitingly staged and handled shoot-out in the excavation tunnel. Alas, in keeping with the pedestrian and inappropriate direction, the music score is one of the most deliriously unsuitable and loudly obtrusive we have heard for some time.

Sydney Poitier is marvelous in any movie he has been in, so far as I have noticed. When he first showed up as MISTER Tibbs in Heat of the Night, I knew it would be a great watch. Unfortunately, by the third run, The Organization, even his usual and expected dazzlement could not save the faulty plot and slow pacing. The premise of a group of amateurs trying to bring down "the organization" and then trying to drag in a good cop like Tibbs (who doesn't let the force know what he is doing) is, well, thin and silly. There were great slices of Tibbs' home life with his son and daughter, which goes to show that Poitier brings life into even a tedious period cop piece like this one. Overall, it's still watchable, but only if you are a dedicated Poitier fan.

Sidney Poitier for the third and last time essayed his Virgil Tibbs character in The Organization. It's definitely one film for the paranoid.There's a robbery/homicide at a furniture warehouse factory outlet in San Francisco. Problem is that those who committed the robbery didn't necessarily do the homicide. But Virgil Tibbs is known as an honest cop far and wide and when the robbers contact him with their story, he's real interested. The outlet was an organized crime front and what was taken and not reported was five million dollars worth of heroin. If he's willing to work with them, maybe we can take down The Organization.But The Organization is very resourceful indeed and Poitier has to watch his back 24/7 because he doesn't know who he can trust in the San Francisco PD. The film does have a real cop feel for it because guys like Garry Walberg, Daniel J. Travanti, Bernie Hamilton, and Gerald S. O'Loughlin who all played prominent TV cops are all in the San Francisco PD with Sid.The robbers are a group of Seventies Revolutionaries and have such diverse folks as Lani Miyazaki, Ron O'Neal, Billy Green Bush and heading the curious crew is a young Raul Julia. Poitier is right, these people have every reason to be concerned.The key to the whole thing is widow Sheree North who will either be rich or dead depending on how she plays it. Sheree is great as always.Poitier as in They Call Me, MISTER TIBBS is married to Barbara McNair. Funny though, when Virgil Tibbs as Howard Rollins decided to go back to work for the Sparta, PD his wife became Althea instead of Valerie which she is in both of these films.The ending shows that the effort might not have been worth it after all. The Organization is EVERYWHERE.