The Organization (film)

Infobox Film
name = The Organization
image_size = 150px
caption =
director = Don Medford
producer = Walter Mirisch
writer = John Ball James Webb
narrator =
starring = Sidney Poitier Barbara McNair
music = Gil Melle
cinematography = Joseph Biroc
editing = Ferris Webster
distributor = United Artists
released = 20 October 1971
runtime = flagicon|USA 106 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by = "They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!"
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0067535

The Organization is a 1971 film starring Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs. It was the last of the trilogy featuring the police detective Tibbs that had begun with "In the Heat of the Night" (1967). In it Tibbs is called in to hunt down a gang of urban revolutionaries, suspected of a series of crimes. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067535/] The title could be seen as referring either to the drug-trafficking organization or the urban revolutionary organization set on bringing them down.

Plot

After a break-in at the headquarters of a company, the police are called in. One of the staff has been murdered, and the watchmen has been coshed - and yet nothing appears to have been stolen. Virgil Tibbs (Potier) suspects that the dead man had been kidnapped previously and brought to the place where he was then killed.

The mystery is intensified by the shooting of the security gaurd, who might have been about to reveal what had really gone on that night.

Tibbs is then contacted by the organization that pulled off the break in. They are urban revolutionaries who explain that the company is a front for drug-dealing, they have stolen $4 million dollars worth of heroin from the safe. They also hoped the break-in would lead the police to investigate the company itself.

Tibbs agrees to help the group, if they co-operate with him. One member of the group is subsequently hunted down and beaten by the drug-pushers, and another is murdered. Tibbs himself comes under suspicion from his superiors after the narcotics division tie him to the stolen drugs. When his involvement with the urban revolutionaries becomes known he is removed from the case, and suspended.

He persuades one of his colleagues to keep following the same line of enquiry that he had been into the bogus company behind the drug traffic. One of the revolutionaries Juan loses his nerve and contacts the company and offers them the drugs back for $500,000. They agree, fully intending to break the deal as soon as he produces the dope.

In an open-air meeting, the drug dealers ambush Juan and take the case, shooting a policemen who tries to intervene. Trying to escape through an under-construction subway system they are pursued by the rest of the revolutionaries, and by Potier who has been keeping tabs on the goings-on. After chasing them down an empty tunnell, Tibbs kills the two drug-pushing heavies in a gun-battle.

He returns to the house of Valerie, wife of the security gaurd and accuses her of orchestrating the murders. When Tibb's colleague arrives, she confesses to murder and being a carrier for the drug gang. Under duress from Tibbs she identifies the two cheifs of the organization in exchange for a lighter sentence.

Reception

Media Releases

It was released on Region One DVD in 2001 and in Region Two in 2003.

Cast

* Sidney Poitier - Virgil Tibbs
* Barbara McNair - Valerie
* Gerald S. O'Loughlin - Leuitenant Pecora
* Sheree North - Mrs Morgan
* Fred Beir - Bob Alford
* Raul Julia - Juan
* James A. Watson Jr. - Stacy Baker

References