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During the first sneak preview of Norman Jewison's "In the Heat of the Night" (1968) in San Francisco, the audience went nuts. They stamped their feet and laughed. Norman Jewison's heart sank completely when there was a huge wave of laughter during Poitier's signature line in the movie, "They call me Mister Tibbs!". As the movie ended, he walked out of the theater dazed and sorrowful, with Hal Ashby trailing behind him. Jewison thought to himself, “'I had made a film that had a little bit of humor, but not a comedy.' I was devastated. Truly devastated. I said to Hal Ashby, ‘Oh, my God. What have we done here?’” However, Ashby was unfazed. He told Jewison that the audience weren’t laughing at the movie; they were just grooving on the humiliating comeuppance Poitier was handing to Steiger in every scene. He continued, “You don’t understand. They were enjoying the film. They were into it. They get it.” Jewison wondered if the movie needed a major recut; Ashby suggested losing a couple of lines here and there, but nothing more. Jewison returned to Los Angeles with serious misgivings. But he was able to console himself with one reaction. “Even in San Francisco, when we got to the scene where Endicott slaps Tibbs and Tibbs slaps him right back, there was suddenly no sardonic or ironic feeling in the audience. There was a gasp, an intake of breath throughout the theater that was almost palpable. From the white audience and the black audience. They didn’t take that as a joke. And at that moment, I knew we had them.” ("Pictures at a Revolution", Mark Harris, 2008) P.S: Remembering the great Canadian Filmmaker Norman Jewison on his 100th birthday!