A prime suspect is Reverend Logan Sharpe, a street preacher who is leading one of the sides in a city referendum on an urban renewal project.

He tells Tibbs he was visiting the prostitute in his professional capacity, to advise her spiritually, and that when he left her apartment, she was alive and healthy.

The film's title was taken from Virgil's assertive response in In the Heat of the Night after the chief mockingly asked him what people call him in the city where he works.

[4] It did not attract nearly as positive a response as the series' 1967 debut, In the Heat of the Night, which won five Academy Awards including the 1967 Best Picture Oscar.

The film score was composed, arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones, and the soundtrack album was released on the United Artists label in 1970.