...tick...tick...tick is the story of a county somewhere in the Deep South undergoing some radical changes in the wake of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the Sixties. A new black sheriff has been elected as a result of the Voting Rights Act and the organizers who came down from the North to see it enforced. But now that Jim Brown has the job, the organizers have gone back North and what to do now in a tense racially divided situation.

One person trying his best to deal with things is Mayor Fredric March who is a southern politician of the old school, but by no means a stupid man. March recognizes the old order is gone and the thing he fears the most is interference from the federal government. He will govern his town as best he can without any outsiders, thank you.

The key in the situation is former sheriff George Kennedy who is a good old boy, quite comfortable with the white power structure, but also an honest and fundamentally decent man.

Things come to a head quickly when a punk kid from another county runs down a little girl who happens to be white and leaves the scene. When Brown arrests Bob Random the kid's father who is a bigwig in the neighboring county threatens to invade Brown's jurisdiction, the new sheriff has a crisis on his hand. What will ALL the residents of Collusa County do in this situation?

In many ways this film is something of a successor to In The Heat Of The Night which covered many of the same issues. In The Heat Of The Night takes place in a time right on the cusp of the changes being voted in Washington. ...tick...tick...tick take place after those changes have taken place. Sad to say that the Academy Award winning In The Heat Of The Night has overshadowed this film, especially after it became the basis of a television series. ...tick...tick...tick in my opinion could also be readily adapted to the small screen.

One thing that In The Heat Of The Night has way over this film is a superior musical score. Whose brilliant idea was it at MGM to have Jim Brown chase Bob Random through the woods with the Mike Curb Congregation singing Gentle On My Mind? It was so out of place.

The three leads are superb in their performances and such folks as Clifton James, Dub Taylor, and Don Stroud play some of the good old boys who deal with the crisis in Collusa County in their different ways. Janet MacLachlan and Lynn Carlin are the supportive women in the lives of Brown and Kennedy respectively. And Bob Random plays one nasty little redneck punk.

...tick...tick...tick still has great entertainment value and it's a portrait of the new emerging American South, one of the best done by the American cinema.

Film-critic Leonard Maltin called this "a poor man's In the Heat of the Night", which sounds like an easy way to dismiss a movie that is actually quite good on it's own terms, and not really anywhere close "In the Heat of the Night" story-wise (except for the part of white southerners learning to respect a black man).

In my opinion, Jim Brown is one of the coolest athletes-turned-actors of his generation. Sure, he's no Sidney Poitier, but who is? Here he's given one of the best parts of his career, and he even gets great support from a number of wonderful actors, notably the legendary Fredric March, who chews the scenery as a quarrelsome old mayor and George Kennedy as the former sheriff (and I guess this movie's equivalent to Rod Steiger if Leonard Maltin had a say in it). Don Stroud (whatever happened to his career?) is creepy as a racist ex-deputy and any fan of Clifton James should get a kick out of his part, as a leading klan-member who in the end turns out to be one of the main characters in the plot, and not such a bad guy after all.

A surprisingly engaging movie, at times quite gripping, with inspired direction by Ralph Nelson and a show of force from a first-rate cast.

7.5/10

Sure, if one is going to compare this film to the earlier "In the Heat of the Night", it can't quite measure up, but that doesn't mean that it's not a good film in its own right. It's a pretty effective story of race relations, in which a black man, Jimmy Price (Jim Brown) is elected the new sheriff of Colusa County. He's replacing the outgoing sheriff, white man John Little (George Kennedy). Jimmy is going to have a rough road ahead of him, but rises to the challenge, and enforces the law in a fair manner, showing no favouritism to either race. His job is made particularly difficult when he arrests a young man (Robert Random) who's killed a little girl in a traffic accident, and the mans' bigshot father (Karl Swenson) shows up to demand his release.

Brown is extremely good in this early lead role, playing a character of likability and integrity. Kennedy is also fine as the one white person willing to stand behind him. A lot of familiar faces fill out supporting and character roles: Lynn Carlin (as Littles' wife),Janet MacLachlan (as Prices' spouse),Don Stroud, Richard Elkins, Clifton James, Mills Watson, Bernie Casey, Anthony James (who was actually in "In the Heat of the Night"),Dub Taylor, and Barry Cahill. Stroud is utterly convincing as Littles' former deputy who's one of the biggest, creepiest racists in the bunch. All of the performers do fine work, but it's the great Fredric March (in one of his last film roles) who tends to steal the show as the aged, ill tempered mayor who's resistant to the idea of outside help.

Plenty of solid local flavour and a nice assortment of music help to make this decent entertainment. Director Ralph Nelson manages to milk some believable tension out of the scenario, especially near the end when it's believed that Swenson will be returning to town with all of his bigoted cronies.

Nelson does come up with an ingenious way to begin the action, with some of the townspeople literally frying an egg on the pavement while there is insistent ticking on the soundtrack. And there's a highly amusing exchange between our leads to end the film.

Seven out of 10.