He had sent the level-headed Mitch to urgently summon Lucy to a "business conference" at 21, a posh New York restaurant.Simultaneously, he learned that his supposedly-dead mother Kate (Jo Van Fleet) was actually alive and operating a nearby profitable brothel in Monterey.As he urns back to look into the door frame of the house, he sees Aaron aking Martha to their bedroom and closing their door for the night.When asked about his salary for police work, Virgil replied: $162.39 per week, and was immediately mocked: "Man, we do not wanna ruffle him." [Note: The Sheriff was almost as incensed by black man Tibbs"" extraordinary earning power as he was about Tibbs as a murder suspect.The ultra-low budget, nightmarish film was shot in grainy 35 mm black-and-white with natural lighting and hand-held cameras to accentuate the visceral fear facing the besieged farmhouse occupants.