“They were tough times in America,” director Norman Jewison, 91, recalls of the 1968 Oscar ceremony, postponed two days for the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated April 4. It is fitting that Jewison’s drama In the Heat of the Night, about a black cop and a white Southern sheriff overcoming fear and prejudice to solve a murder, won the best picture statuette, topping a field that included Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. “It meant a lot to me that the film was honored,” adds Jewison, who reunited with Sidney Poitier, 90, producer Walter Mirisch, 96, and composer Quincy Jones, 84, for a 50th anniversary photo. The old comrades hugged and laughed, happy to be in one another’s company again. “It…
