Norman Jewison Streaming Guide: ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ to ‘Moonstruck’

The oeuvre of director Norman Jewison, who died this past weekend at the age of 97, can’t be simply categorized. His versatility was rarely matched by any of his peers. He made epic musicals like “Fiddler on the Roof,” heart-stirring romantic comedies like “Moonstruck” and tense social thrillers like “In the Heat of the Night.” Over his decades in Hollywood, he directed everything from the Cold War comedy “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming” (1966) to the sexy heist feature “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968) to the based-on-a-true-story drama “The Hurricane” (1999). While the divergent tones could imply that Jewison was something of a journeyman, instead he brought a humanity to every story he touched, treating each one, regardless of subject matter, with the grace it deserved. Here are some films of his available to stream, no matter your mood.

‘Send Me No Flowers’ (1964)

Early in his career, when Jewison was under contract with Universal, he made the last of the three Doris Day and Rock Hudson comedies, “Send Me No Flowers.” In a divergence from the pair’s earlier collaborations, this one finds them not as warring city dwellers but as a married suburban couple who undergoes a crisis when the husband, George Kimball (Hudson), a hypochondriac, begins to think he’s going to die. Without telling his wife, Judy Kimball (Day), George goes about trying to make sure she is set for when he dies, including finding her a new man to marry when he’s gone. Naturally, misunderstandings ensue. It’s a classically zany rom-com from the era, but the film also shows Day and Hudson at their most vulnerable as they untangle all these complications. It’s a sign of what was to come from Jewison, who always found the emotional core of his characters and allowed actors to do some of their best work.

Rent or buy on most major platforms.

‘In the Heat of the Night’ (1967)

From the very first moment of “In the Heat of the Night,” a close-up of a fly crawling across a calendar, there’s an unsettling air to Jewison’s film about a Black police officer, Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier). He first is wrongfully accused of a murder in small-town Sparta, Miss., and then is tasked with solving the crime. Poitier’s forceful delivery of the line “They call me Mister Tibbs” — a declaration of his personhood in the face of racist dehumanization — is perhaps what’s best remembered from this Oscar winner for Best Picture. But it’s a towering film in every respect, a document of the insidiousness at the heart of places like Sparta and in American culture in general. Jewison’s careful framing of Poitier makes sure he’s the most dominant person in every scene, even as the shadows of this nasty place encroach on him.