The Organization (1971)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Don Medford

Writers:

John Ball (characters)
James R. Webb (written by)

Release Date:

9 September 1972 (Sweden)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The Toughest Cop Has The Guts To Take On "THE ORGANIZATION."

Plot:

After a group of young revolutionaries break into a company's corporate headquarters and steal $5,000,000 worth of heroin to keep it off the street...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Murder | Drugs | Black Cop | Sequel

Cast

Sidney Poitier	...	Virgil Tibbs
Barbara McNair	...	Valerie Tibbs
Gerald S. O'Loughlin	...	Detective Lieutenant Jack Pecora SFPD Homicide
Sheree North	...	Mrs. Gloria Morgan
Fred Beir	...	Bob Alford
Allen Garfield	...	Benjy
Bernie Hamilton	...	Detective Lieutenant Jessop SFPD Narcotics Division
Graham Jarvis	...	William Martin
Raul Julia	...	Juan Mendoza
Ron O'Neal	...	Joe Peralez
James A. Watson Jr.	...	Stacy Baker
Charles H. Gray	...	George Morgan - Night Watchman
Jarion Monroe	...	Larry French
Daniel J. Travanti	...	Police Sergeant Leo Chassman (as Dan Travanty)
Billy Green Bush	...	Dave Thomas

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for drug related material and some violence.

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:AA | West Germany:16 (f) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:PG-13 (re-rating)

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Mirisch Corporation, The

Trivia:

The first line of dialogue only occurs eight minutes into the movie, the second six minutes later, when the heist is over. Apart from that one line the entire heist is done without any dialogue, which is reminiscent of the wordless robbery scene in _Rififi (1955)_.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Tibbs chases the "thugs" into the subway, he's being shot at. When he dives away behind some oil barrels, the trolley on which the camera is mounted shows up for a second or so.

Movie Connections:

Follows In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Taking down The Organization?

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.