Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is a 1967 award-winning comedy-drama movie starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Houghton.

Plot summary

The movie concerns Joanna Drayton, a young white American woman (Houghton) who has had a whirlwind romance with Dr. Prentice (Poitier), an African American she met while on a holiday in Hawaii. The two plan to marry and she will return with him to Switzerland. The plot is centered on Joanna’s return to her liberal upper class American home bringing her new fiancé to dinner to meet her parents, and the reaction of family and friends.

Information

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for screenwriter, William Rose. The 1967 groundbreaking story dealt with the controversial subject of interracial marriage which had been illegal historically in most of the United States, and was still illegal in 17 Southern U.S. States up until June 12 of that year. Although legalized throughout the U.S. following the Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia, the topic was still taboo in many areas.

According to director Stanley Kramer, he and Rose intentionally debunked ethnic stereotypes; the young doctor, a typical role for the young Sidney Poitier, was purposely created idealistically perfect so that the only possible objection to his marrying Joanna would be his race, or the fact she only met him nine days earlier. Therefore, he has graduated from a top school, begun innovative medical initiatives in Africa, refused to have premarital sex with his fiancée despite her request, and leaves money on his future father-in-law's desk in payment for a long distance phone call he has made.

Stanley Kramer stated later that the principals believed so strongly in the premise that they agreed to act in the project even before seeing the script. Spencer Tracy was dying and insurance companies refused to cover him; Kramer and Hepburn put their salaries in escrow so that if he died filming could be completed with another actor. The filming schedule was altered to accommodate Tracy's failing health.

Criticism was more positive than negative, with most critics praising the elegant, understated performances. The film also attempted to touch upon black-on-black racism, as when both the doctor's father and the household cook Tillie Binks, played by Isabel Sanford in a small but memorable role, take the young man to task for his perceived presumption.

The film was also memorable for being the last on-screen pairing of Tracy and Hepburn (Tracy died seventeen days after the shooting ended). In Tracy's final speech of the film, Hepburn's tears were real—they both knew that this would be the last line of his last film, that he hadn't much longer to live. Hepburn never saw the completed film. She said the memories of Tracy were too painful.

The film also featured Roy Glenn and Beah Richards as Mr. and Mrs. Prentice. Richards was nominated for an Oscar for her role but lost to Estelle Parsons. Virginia Christine is also featured as a co-worker of Christina's.

The original version of this film that played in theaters in 1967 contained the sarcastic one-liner "The Reverend Martin Luther King!", issued by the sassy black maid Tillie in response to the question, "Guess who's coming to dinner?", which is the key line of dialog from which the film got its title. This line consistently evoked roars of laughter in the theater and was probably the high moment of the film. However, after the assassination of Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968, this line was removed from the film, so by August 1968, theater showings of this film had this line omitted. While that line was still omitted from the video release of the film decades later, the line was restored in the DVD version.

In 1998, the American Film Institute rated Guess Who's Coming to Dinner as number 99 in its list of the 100 Greatest Movies of the past 100 years.

Awards

1968: Academy Award for Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn)
1968: Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay
1969: BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor (Spencer Tracy)
1969: BAFTA Film Award for Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn)

External links

1967 films | Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award nominated performance | Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award winning performance | Best Picture Academy Award nominees | Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nominated performance | Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominated performance | Films directed by Stanley Kramer | Race-related films

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Plot summary

Information

Awards

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