I want to find out the grammatical correctness of "where" versus "in
which."  Here is an example of the specific kinds of usage I am
looking at:
"I liked the movie scene where the hero jumped out of the car."
"I liked the movie scene in which the hero jumped out of the car."

And another:
"He just read the part of the story where Jack and Jill first kiss."
"He just read the part of the story in which Jack and Jill first kiss."

In these types of circumstnaces, what is the grammatical status of
"where" and "in which?"  Is one grammatically correct and the other,
not?  If so, which is correct and which is incorrect?  Or are they
both correct?  If so, is one preferred or "more" correct than the
other?  If so, which one?

My intuition is that in such circumstances, "in which" is correct
while "where" is not, but I would like an authoritative answer on
this.  Thank you.

In each of your examples, I consider "in which" to be standard usage,
and "where" to be colloquial. A colloquial usage is not necessarily
"incorrect," but it is less formal, and should probably not be used in
print unless you are seeking a conversational, casual tone. This is a
judgment call; when in doubt about such things, particularly in
business correspondence, it's usually best to choose wording that is
more formal and traditional.

"WHERE...

'Where' has become an all-purpose word in informal speech as a synonym
for 'whereas,' 'whereby,' 'in which' and 'that.' But such uses, which
appear regularly in news copy, are not quite accepted as standard...

COLLOQUIAL: Remember that scene where Jerry tells George about Elaine's old beau?
STANDARD: Remember that scene in which Jerry tells George about Elaine's old beau?

COLLOQUIAL: This is a case where no one will come out ahead.
STANDARD: This is a case in which no one will come out ahead.

COLLOQUIAL: These people get lost in a system where there are few safeguards.
STANDARD: These people get lost in a system in which there are few safeguards."

WordPolish: WHERE
http://wordpolish.com/ref/where.html

"When is where correct, and when should in which be used instead?... 

The word where is permissible, though not always desirable, in place
of the phrase in which.

? We have a situation in which there were opportunities, apparently,
to be able to ward off this terrible blow.

? The games weren't tightly scripted Homeric epics in which warriors
dropped their weapons every four years to honor the twin virtues of
amateur sport and brotherhood.

? It is a world in which everything has already happened; in which
there never can be anything new again.

In these sentences, and in most formal writing, in which sounds better
than the casual where."

The Vocabula Review: Ask Fiske
http://www.vocabula.com/popups/askfiske.asp

My Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: colloquial "in which" +where
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=colloquial+%22in+which%22+%2Bwhere

I hope this is helpful. If anything is unclear, please request clarification.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

Awesome.  Well explained, good examples, and well referenced.  Thanks!!

Thank you very much for the five-star rating and the nice tip!

~pinkfreud

As I look at the two sentences, I get a different impression.

...like the movie where... to me implies the specific scene(s) showing
the topic.  (I really liked watching the scene where he jumps from the
car)

...like the movie in which... to me implies the whole movie.  (I
really liked that [insert movie name here] that had the scene showing
him jumping from the car.)

I think it may not always be the same.. 
See this sentence from
Over the last decade organizations have increasingly adopted
team-centred structures in order to "improve the way in which
knowledge is developed, disseminated and applied in organization."
It does not equal to
"improve the way where knowledge is developed, disseminated and
applied in organization."
I think have to pay another $2