Introduction
Today we head to Sparta, Chester, and Freeburg, IL as well as Dyersburg, TN to find the locations from the 1968 BEST PICTURE Winner, In the Heat of the Night starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger.
#intheheatofthenight #filminglocations #sidneypoitier
LOCATIONS
COMPTON CAFE
N State St & Peabody Rd
Freeburg Township, IL 62243
TRAIN STATION
611 W 2nd St
Sparta, IL 62286
BRIDGE ESCAPE ATTEMPT
37.90465
-89.83478
BODY DISCOVERY
147 W Broadway St
Sparta, IL 62286
GILLESPIE DRIVES THROUGH TOWN
W Broadway and S St Louis St
Sparta, IL 62286
POLICE STATION
E Jackson St & S Market St
Sparta, IL 62286
GARAGE/BARN
38.09564
-89.70391
ENDICOTT'S MANSION
1560 Pennell Ln
Dyersburg, TN 38024
CAR CHASE
Follow Country Club Rd & Brandy Ln to Roundhouse Rd
TRAIN YARD
38.11718
-89.72656
Music courtesy of Youtube Studio.
Video
Philadelphia what do they call you up there? They call me mr, tibbs, mr tips.
Well, mr, wood, take mr tibbs, take him down to the depot.
And I mean, boy like now I have the fbi lab send you the report on this, not that it'll make any difference.
All right here.
We go hitting the open road, leaving tennessee heading up to southern illinois for some filming locations for the 1967, classic one of afi's top 100 movies of all time.
One best picture at the 1968, oscars it's, the excellent movie from 1967 in the heat of the night we're going to see the spots, some of them aren't there anymore, we're going to them.
Anyways, a lot of them are still standing we're, definitely going to those welcome to ryan and virginia go to the movies I'm ryan.
This is virginia and uh, this is a hobby of ours.
We've been doing for a while do the then and now pictures on instagram and facebook for family and friends and other people that like to do this hobby, but I figured it was time.
Let me get a nice camera and let's start documenting this stuff on video.
So that's, what we're doing sitting right up there.
Marble cake tell you what sam bianchi's in there by a little lonesome I'll, let you have it for free.
I told you about that, sam business dinner, sorry, mr, wood.
I mean, uh, officer, wood.
Okay.
We made it with like two three minutes left of daylight to spare.
But this is this the area where the cafe was the compton cafe or conference cafe.
And it was sitting right here pointing out to the corner.
And the reason I know that is because I've got an old aerial photo where you can match up the co*ke sign to the top of the building and see exactly where it was right here.
And the reason I went searching so hard for that picture is because I wanted to know if the cars turned out right here or behind this grass patch, because the poles aren't there anymore.
But I thought it could have been this one because there are poles here.
But no the sign was right there.
There were some telephone poles.
And this is where they turn out of so cafe here and turn left out of here, going home.
Man, they're, your people, not mine yours.
You made this scene.
What do you want to do you want me to beg? You is that what you have look.
I've had your town up to here.
Boy, it would give me a world of satisfactional horse whip.
You virgil, my father used to say that all right we're here at the mistletoe art gallery, which was the train station.
It was an actual train station.
Now an art gallery.
It was the train station that sydney.
48 first, uh was at and a bunch of scenes, take place here somewhere on the inside.
And they are closed today.
Still closed every day right now.
Because if coven I was told after calling, but somewhere in here, I can't pinpoint it because there was a bathroom next to them.
And I don't see a bathroom through the windows anywhere, but you can see when I go back over here, because the walls are exactly the same.
Now they've got the the paneling there on the side and then down there let's see if they're pointed, it becomes the darker color, and that could be the corner where he was sitting towards the beginning of the movie.
Now I'm actually standing exactly where he was sitting on the scenes where he tried to leave sheriff, came convinced them to stay that famous shot of them both sitting on the bench right here tense conversation.
And he the sheriff that is first approaches from over here.
You can see the water tower in the background.
And actually, I don't know if this is the same one.
But this thing matches perfectly it's, not in the exact same spot would have been behind.
Uh, this door, right here.
But everything matches up from this, except for the color, which obviously could have been painted the handle matches, the three, uh boards, sticking up and gmno were the trains used in the movie.
So, uh, serious movie history, iconic movie history happening right here at this train stop.
If you ever want to come visit this place once it's back open after covet it's called the missile horn.
Art gallery, this guy is known as the norman rockwell of the midwest, which I'm, assuming means he's a realist or draws everything as true to life as possible.
Uh, I've heard they have some in the heat of the night stuff in there, which makes me really disappointed that we couldn't go in, but um, I'll for sure be back to visit once I can, oh another fun fact, there was an actual murder that was unsolved at the time of the filming that took place here at this train station, they didn't know until afterwards and uh, it's funny, because the movie is a murder mystery.
I don't know if it ever got solved because I found that in an old newspaper from the 60s, if it wasn't solved, that means it's been almost 100 years.
There's, one shot in in the heat of the night that I'm very proud of we were down on the banks, the mississippi.
And all of a sudden we realize he's going across the bridge.
And you can see the tiny figure running across the empty bridge.
I say, do you have a lens that we could move in that far? He said, well, we got a 500 millimeter.
So they bring out this.
I'd never seen it before they brought out this big, 500 millimeter.
Zoom lens.
So when I see that shot every time I see that shot, I go crazy because I realize it's one of the best shots of any of the films.
Okay.
So this is the alleyway where they first discover the body that kicks off the movie.
The inciting incident all happens.
Right here.
Uh that building on the left was called something different derussy.
I don't even know if it's showing the whole sign, but yeah, we're here in downtown sparta, finally and it's snowing on us.
But yeah, up and down this street.
You see the sheriff driving, you see a bunch of stuff, driving it's crazy.
Because a lot of this stuff looks exactly the same and a lot of it's really different than what it was in the 60s.
If you just drove through here, looked at these buildings, you might think these could have been here in the 60s.
But if you look down that way, especially it's way different than it was so here's, another angle, where they found the body in the movie, the police officer rolls up here.
He gets out of his car that shot's taken from across the street.
Then it flips over here.
And then a whole team of people come to investigate a photographer a doctor they're all standing right here.
And you can see that building right there in the background looks exactly the same today or pretty identical here's the corner where the sheriff drives take note of this spot, because when the sheriff drives and goes to that car parts place or whatever it is it actually ends up going in a huge circle, and he could have just down on this corner gone in that same spot.
But anyways, he pulls up this road camera fans over.
And you see him drive downtown.
The buildings look a lot different.
Of course, it's been over 50 years since the movie was made, but the shapes are still pretty much the same.
Okay.
So here's where the sheriff comes.
And like I was saying he makes a big circle.
I told you to remember where he started that's that building right there.
So he makes a big circle drives past this building, which I think this is the uh hendersons building from the movie.
It looks the same, but front's a little bit different.
The doors and windows.
I feel like are a little bit different shapes slightly different in the road.
I don't know, maybe that isn't it.
But anyway, he goes past it and turns into this corner where the shop was that is no longer there house in the background is no longer there, but that's where he was.
He went in a big circle, just to move a couple of meters it's hard to match up because the building doesn't exist anymore.
But I'm, pretty sure the police station was right here on this corner, which is now a fire station looks nothing the same, but there's a couple of clues.
So first that building way back there, I believe was sparta lumber company, which is now a pawn shop.
And then if you look at this building right here that brick short building almost the triangular part of this roof coming down that matches up also this building here, which I believe could have been here, but it was before this part was added.
So I went there was a space here, went straight back into the police station, right here.
Those two windows match up and that doorway matches up that's.
The reason I think of course, it could have been torn down and rebuilt and just looked very similar, because there were two windows on the front or one window.
I can't, remember, um, two windows, but uh, yeah, I'm fairly certain.
This is the spot the area looks way different.
Now, if you look at the police station from this angle, where that shot turns to all this stuff on this, road looks totally different demolished.
So on backward, back then there's a little alley over here behind the fire station and uh, there used to be a single alley firehouse for the police station behind it.
Um in the back of the building there's, a steel door, where it used to be the entry to the jail.
So it used to be one one door, firehouse, four, fire trucks backed in they'd have to pull one out to get one from the back, uh, very complicated back then, but yeah, the jail and firehouse also all used to be right here in one position, uh, the city hall actually was on the main strip.
So it wasn't together back where it is now.
So so there there was a police station right there? Yes, it was all right.
So I was right, confirmed the barn location or the garage location where uh rod stagger in sydney portiego was right here and I'll tell you how I knew that it's all torn down.
Now garage was about right there.
And I have confirmed with aerial photography from 1968 that this was the spot.
And I think now this was not showing in the movie.
But I think this mailbox was here because you can kind of see it in the aerial shot that curve the mailbox.
I don't know for sure because it's far away.
But this is definitely the spot where they filmed that scene in the heat of the night, which I'm thinking about how they filmed in the fall, and it must have been really cold, and I think they should have called it in the chill because it is snowing right now and it's below 40 degrees.
Well, let us say the people who work for mr colbert might reasonably regard you as the person least likely to mourn his passing.
We were just trying to clarify.
Some of the evidence was mr colbert ever in this greenhouse say last night about midnight, good let's, be, yeah, you saw it.
I saw it.
But what are you gonna do about it? The scene builds beautifully and quite understandably to a point where offended by my uh asking him, personally about his whereabouts that he slaps me, which was, I suppose out of his culture and his values was the proper thing to do.
And he was quite emotional about it.
He was so offended that he slapped me.
And I said to walter, I said, uh, in my life, whether I'm I'm a detective or not, and I don't care where I am if such a thing happened to me, the likelihood is, I would respond.
And my response would be certainly not to absorb it.
And he said what what do you mean? I said, well, it would be an instant response.
And the response would be in kind.
It was designed on the basis of a man's humanity.
If it is offended in that way, it's difficult for him not to.
So the production people were a little queasy about that I said, well, then they will have no deal.
And I said, if we do it that way it stays in the picture and they said, okay, so that it worked, um, I'm, technically transparent, I'm, far back in here.
So I don't want to run too deep, um.
But somewhere back here was the area where he ran away from the rednecks that tried to attack him.
Could that be the building? I was able to find from an old fire, marshal's map that it was a shop where they fixed the trains, and I found an aerial photo, or you can see a bunch of stuff.
Okay.
I pinpointed my area on the gps, which uh, I'm gonna have to go with the screenshot here because that's, not focusing.
But I found that I am in a general spot like pretty close to where that building was.
I think it might have even been where I'm standing because these, um, what looks like a road? There used to be train tracks running across it, which I'll show you with an old aerial photo.
Yeah, I think I'm actually standing inside or looking at and could this be pieces from the building, the roundhouse area, the shops got your ticket.
Yeah, thank you.
Bye-Bye.
Virgil.
You take care you're here.
You.
