The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 3 plus 4 plus 2 plus 3 plus 5 letter word IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
I
N
T
H
E
H
E
A
T
O
F
T
H
E
N
I
G
H
T
More clues leading to the result IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "Film" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case film = in the heat of the night.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.