"Fowl Owl on the Prowl" - Travis and Boomer (1967)

This is one of my favorite Halloween songs. The film “In the Heat of the Night” actually takes place just before Halloween- look at the calendars on the wall of the diner and at the Police Station. That’s why the chief wears a jacket in some of the scenes; it’s late autumn.

This song still has lots of fans- I just received this comment the other day, showing that the song is still very much appreciated.

MandocrucianOctober 27, 2015 at 11:27 AM

“The scene was filmed to the music of "Little Red Riding Hood" by Sam The Sham & The Pharoahs. Somehow the movie couldn't get synchronization rights for the song (for some stupid reason, the song publisher would only OK using the melody, not the lyrics), so Quincy Jones whipped up a substitute with the same groove and lyric idea. Sounds like Sam The Sham meets Buck Owens & Don Rich.”

Here is the original post which I have re-posted several times over the past few years.

This is one of my favorite scenes in the movie “In the Heat of the Night” which was released in 1968 and starred Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger and Lee Grant along with a host of other character actors. The film won an Academy Award and has been a favorite of mine since its release. But this scene, and the accompanying song, “Foul Owl on the Prowl” has stuck with me since. It’s a satirical country song, with the music written by none other than Quincy Jones, and the lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, a husband and wife team who went on to pen some of the best theme songs on TV sitcoms.

In this scene, Ralph, the night cook at the diner in Sparta, Mississippi where the story takes place, pries open the jukebox to avoid paying a nickel to hear his favorite song. His almost comical role in this scene belies the true nature of the man, as the film bears out.

The song is almost inaudible in certain portions of the scene, and it would be about 20 years before I would hear the entire lyrics to the song, but it’s worth a listen. The lyrics concern a man, described as an owl, who is on the prowl for his next victim in the dark of night. Using various birds and rhymes, Mr. and Mrs. Bergman crafted a very clever lyric to go along with Mr. Jones’ music.

But the real surprise to me has always been that Quincy Jones, the contemporary genius of jazz, was able to write this melody, which is so far afield from his usual genre. It serves to underscore the sheer musical talent inherent in the man. You either have it, or you don’t. Clearly, Mr. Jones has it.

If you have never heard the full recorded version by Boomer and Travis, then here is your chance. Just hit the link below and listen to Boomer and Travis perform this quirky little number which has quite a cult following; including me. The lyrics are printed below the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HqIEtAhE7I

"In the Heat of the Night" - Season 1 (1988)

One of the gifts I got for Christmas was the First Season DVD collection from the TV series “In the Heat of the Night”, which was based on the 1967 film of the same name starring Rod Steiger as local sheriff in Bill Gillespie the town of Sparta, Mississippi. In that film a police detective by the name of Virgil Tibbs;by Sidney Poitier; is passing through Sparta on his way home to Philadelphia. While awaiting the 4:30 AM train he is picked up for the murder of the town’s biggest employer who is about to open a factory. The most often remembered line of the film occurs when Tibbs is called boy by the Sheriff and he replies with the stinging rebuke, “They call me Mr. Tibbs!”

The film was so iconic of the times that I never really paid much attention to the TV spinoff starring Carrol O’Connor; Archie Bunker from TV’s “All in the Family”; figuring that aside from the name of the series, there wasn’t much potential there. And, aside from that, what could ever top the scene where Tibbs; played by Sidney Poitier; smacks back the town’s oldest revered segregationist in his very own green house? Howard E. Rollins Jr. plays Virgil Tibbs in a very convincing manner, while never making you feel as if he is trying to emulate Poiter’s treatment of the role.

Well, last night (actually a few nights ago by the time you read this) I decided to check the series out, beginning with the 2 part Pilot episode, which sets up the whole series based upon the movie. I was pleasantly surprised. The hardest part of adapting any type of movie or show to another genre; particularly television; can be a road fraught with pitfalls.  It’s so easy to take something millions of people have come to love in its original form and screw it up.  However, I was pleasantly surprised at the way they adapted this story for the pilot. I still haven’t begun the rest of the series, but the pilot is really well done.

To begin with, picking Carroll O’Connor for the role of Gillespie was a great choice.  And the way they bring Tibbs back to Sparta for his mother’s funeral is fairly believable. The only real discrepancy is that in the film Tibbs was visiting his mother in a neighboring town, hence the need for the train connection. In the series she appears to have been a longtime resident of the town, which raises all kinds of questions about why he was portrayed as a stranger passing through in the film.

These differences aside the pilot is beautifully executed. They even have a scene where Tibbs gets to reiterate that they call him Mr. Tibbs after being called boy by Deputy Bubba Skinner; played by Alan Autry. This is good because it gets that whole image out of the way and allows the series to take on its own flavor. They must have done something right as the show ran from 1988 through 1995 drawing praise for the entire run. What can I say; sometimes it just takes me a while to catch on to something good.

"The Pawnbroker" with Rod Steiger (1965)

Very few actors ever hone their craft to the knife’s edge the way Rod Steiger did. Bogart, DeNiro, even Denzel Washington are all recognizable as themselves in most films. Steiger was on a par with Frederic March, another actor with that chameleon like quality which enabled the viewer to suddenly go, “Hey, isn’t that (insert name here)?” half way through a film, and still not be sure it was until the final credits rolled. Walter Huston had that same magic. He was tall, about 6’2”, yet he is always remembered as the wizened little miner in “Treasure of the Sierra Madres.” A giant of an actor, he just played it small.

Rod Steiger’s credits include the corrupt union boss in “On the Waterfront”, the Police Chief in “In the Heat of the Night” (it took him a year to stop chewing gum after that film), the disgruntled juror forced to face his own prejudice in “Twelve Angry Men” and a score of other roles. But more than any other role, his performance in “The Pawnbroker” was possibly his most searing as he portrays a man who has lost his wife and children to the the Nazi’s, along with the ability to love or even feel.

His assistant in the shop wants to learn to be a businessman, just like his boss. He even asks the Pawnbroker to teach him how to be a Jew- to make money- to share his secrets. The Pawnbrokers scathing reply is in the clip below.

There is always a steady succession of people who are down on their luck who come to the shop to pawn the most trivial of their possessions in order to survive. The Pawnbroker dispassionately serves their needs, all the while cursing his own past and the misery of the world about him. He has a partnership with the local crime boss, who used the pawnshop to “launder” the profits he makes from dealing drugs and pimping prostitutes. The Pawnbroker seems indifferent to the misey which supplies the money he lives upon.

Constantly plagued by memories of the concentration camp, he inhabits a world filled with flashbacks to the most horrifying moments of his wartime ordeal. One of those memories involves being forced to look into the building where the female prisoners are forced to work as sex slaves. One of the women he sees is his own wife. When one of the local working girls comes to him with something to pawn she offers him sex in addition to the trade as a way of getting more money.

The Pawnbroker finds himself in a moral dilemma; haunted by the memory of his wife’s ordeal and at the same time facilitating the misery of others in his present day world. He goes to see the crime boss, stating that he did not know where the money came from. The boss just laughs at him and asks him the same question Jews the world over posed to the German people at the end of the war. “How could you not have known?”

In the meantime his assistant has taken the Pawnbroker at his word that money is all that matters if you want to get ahead in the world. You must have it at any cost. So, he decides to help some local hoods rob the pawnshop, where the Pawnbroker keeps some of the laundered money from the crime boss. There is to be no killing. That’s the plan.

But in the end there is always killing. Nobody gets out alive, even if they sometimes are still walking and breathing. This is an intense and moving drama about the human condition and the lines we draw to identify ourselves; and others; as good or evil. And, sometimes we find that they are both just different sides of the same coin.

With a great script from a great book, directed by Sidney Pollack and filmed in a gritty New York City, this film makes good use of the soundtrack by Quincy Jones as it navigates the question of morality which we all must face at one time or another; “Am I a good person; or a bad one?”

"Foul Owl On the Prowl" - Quincy Jones (1968)

This is one of my favorite scenes in the movie “In the Heat of the Night” which was released in 1968 and starred Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger and Lee Grant along with a host of other character actors. The film won an Academy Award and has been a favorite of mine since its release. But this scene, and the accompanying song, “Foul Owl on the Prowl” has stuck with me since. It’s a satirical country song, with the music written by none other than Quincy Jones, and the lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, a husband and wife team who went on to pen some of the best theme songs on TV sitcoms.

In this scene, Ralph, the night cook at the diner in Sparta, Mississippi where the story takes place, pries open the jukebox to avoid paying a nickel to hear his favorite song. His almost comical role in this scene belies the true nature of the man, as the film bears out.

The song is almost inaudible in certain portions of the scene, and it would be about 20 years before I would hear the entire lyrics to the song, but it’s worth a listen. The lyrics concern a man, described as an owl, who is on the prowl for his next victim in the dark of night. Using various birds and rhymes, Mr. and Mrs. Bergman crafted a very clever lyric to go along with Mr. Jones’ music.

But the real surprise to me has always been that Quincy Jones, the contemporary genius of jazz, was able to write this melody, which is so far afield from his usual genre. It serves to underscore the sheer musical talent inherent in the man. You either have it, or you don’t. Clearly, Mr. Jones has it.

If you have never heard the full recorded version by Boomer and Travis, then here is your chance. Just hit the link below and listen to Boomer and Travis perform this quirky little number which has quite a cult following; including me. The lyrics are printed below the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HqIEtAhE7I

"Foul Owl On The Prowl"

(Quincy Jones – Alan and Marilyn Bergman)

There's a foul owl on the prowl tonight.

 Hey, little lark, get outta the dark,

 Foul owl on the prowl.

 Hey little jay, stay out of his way,

 Foul owl on the prowl.

 You just might be the quail he'll tail,

 Foul owl on the prowl.

 You just might be the swallow he'll follow,

 Foul owl on the prowl.

 If you hear him hoot, scoot,

 If you pass his tree, flee,

 If you catch his eye, fly,

 Don't wait to say goodbye.

 He's got a yen for a purty little hen,

 Foul owl on the prowl.

 He's hungry for a chick, so get home quick,

 Foul owl on the prowl.

 If you hear him hoot, scoot,

 If you pass his tree, flee,

 If you catch his eye, fly,

 Don't wait to say goodbye.

 He's got a yen for a purty little hen,

 Foul owl on the prowl.

 He's hungry for a chick, so get home quick,

 Foul owl on the prowl.

 Foul owl on the prowl.

 Foul owl on the prowl.

 Foul owl on the prowl.

 Foul owl on the prowl.

 Foul owl on the prowl.

Karl Malden in "On the Waterfront"

In one of the most poignant scenes from the film “On the Waterfront”, Karl Malden delivers one of the all-time great sermons ever captured on screen. Father Barry, portrayed by Malden in the film, has taken an oath to stand by one of the men who has agreed to testify against the mobsters who control the waterfront. When that man is killed Father Barry steps up to the plate and tells the truth about the corruption that mires the world all around him.

In the 6 decades since this film was released many things have changed. Technologically we have eclipsed some of our wildest dreams, yet there is still a vacant spot in our hearts and souls. And the problems always come back to the same point of origin; greed and vanity. 

That’s right, vanity. For what can be more vain than to think that your life; your needs, your desires; are more worthy of fulfillment than another’s? Until you can answer that question honestly, and without prevarication, then we will never grow to our true height as a civilized society.