Main Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Houghton, Beah Richards, Roy E. Glenn, Sr., Isabel Sanford, Cecil Kellaway
Release Year: 1967
Country: US
Run Time: 108 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Old-line liberals Matt and Christina Drayton (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn) have raised their daughter Joey (Katharine Houghton) to think for herself and not blindly conform to the conventional. Still, they aren't prepared for the shock when she returns home from a vacation with a new fiancé: African-American doctor John Prentice (Sidney Poitier). While they come to grips with whatever prejudices they might still harbor, the younger folks must also contend with John's parents (Roy Glenn Sr. and Beah Richards), who are dead-set against the union. To complicate matters, the older couple's disapproving maid (Isabel Sanford) and Christina's bigoted business associate (Virginia Christine) put in their two cents' worth. While Joey is determined to go ahead with the wedding no matter what people think, John refuses to consider marriage until he receives the unqualified approval of all concerned. The closing monologue delivered by Spencer Tracy turned out to be the last scene ever played by the veteran film luminary, who died not long after the production. The film was a success in the racially volatile year of 1967 and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won for Hepburn and screenwriter William Rose. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Nominated for ten Academy Awards, this comedy-drama achieves classic status for several reasons. The first and most obvious is its early exploration of interracial marriage, a still-taboo subject at a time when violent racial riots were igniting in cities across the United States. Director Stanley Kramer, known for dissecting serious social issues in films such as Inherit the Wind (1960) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), as well as for his sense of humor in films such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), blends his sensibilities beautifully. He and screenwriter William Rose (Best Original Screenplay) inject welcome humor while allowing the audience to peek into the hearts of liberal whites and wary blacks, without proselytizing. Film history is made as well: In Spencer Tracy's last film role (he died weeks after production), he delivers a monologue to Katherine Hepburn (Best Actress) about the persistence of long-lasting love that is heartbreaking considering the imminent end of their real-life romance. The collaboration represents Kramer's fourth with Tracy and second with Sidney Poitier, who brilliantly portrays Dr. John Prentice's perfect gentleman with humor, grit, and charisma. In the same year, Poitier starred in To Sir, With Love (1967) and In the Heat of the Night (1967), which won Best Picture. Film newcomer and Hepburn's real-life niece Katharine Houghton is a delight as Tracy and Hepburn's bright and independent daughter whose love for Dr. Prentice is fierce and fearless, if a bit naive. Isabel Sanford, Cecil Kellaway, and Beah Richards lead a rich supporting cast in a film that, like so many works of art that broke new ground, has come to seem dated in its cautious, watered-down attitude, but which deserves to be applauded and celebrated for its courage, incendiary in its time. ~ Lisa Kropiewnicki, All Movie Guide
Virginia Christine - Hilary St. George; Alexandra Hay - Car Hop; Barbara Randolph - Dorothy; D'Urville Martin - Frankie; Grace Gaynor - Judith; Skip Martin - Delivery Boy; John Bear Hudkins - Cab Driver; Thomas Heaton - Peter
Credit
George Glass - Associate Producer, Jean Louis - Costume Designer, Joe King - Costume Designer, Ray Gosnell, Jr. - First Assistant Director, Stanley Kramer - Director, Robert Jones - Editor, Frank De Vol - Composer (Music Score), Jacqueline Fontaine - Songwriter, Ben Lane - Makeup, Joseph de Bella - Makeup, Robert Clatworthy - Production Designer, Sam Leavitt - Cinematographer, Stanley Kramer - Producer, Frank A. Tuttle - Set Designer, Geza Gaspar - Special Effects, William Rose - Screenwriter, Billy Hill - Featured Music
The groundbreaking story deals with the controversial subject of interracial marriage, which historically had been illegal in most of the United States, and was still illegal in seventeen southern American states up until June 12 of the year of the film's release. Although legalized throughout the U.S. following the Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia, the topic was still taboo in many areas.
The film also touches on black-on-black racism, as when both the doctor's father and the household cook Matilda 'Tillie' Binks, played by Isabel Sanford in a small but memorable role, take the young man to task for his perceived presumption.
The film is also notable for being the ninth and final on-screen pairing of Tracy and Hepburn (Tracy died seventeen days after filming 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 had not much longer to live. Hepburn never saw the completed film[citation needed]; she said the memories of Tracy were too painful. The film was released in December 1967, six months after his death.[2]
Joanna "Joey" Drayton (Katharine Houghton) is a young Caucasian American woman who has had a whirlwind romance with Dr. John Prentice (Sidney Poitier), an African American man she met at college in Hawaii. Prentice plans to fly to New York later that night then on to an assignment in Switzerland. Joanna plans to join him there soon to be married even though she has only known him for ten days. The plot is centered on Joanna’s return to her liberalupper class American home in San Francisco, bringing her new fiancé to dinner to meet her parents (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn), and the reaction of family and friends.
According to director Stanley Kramer, he and screenwriter William Rose intentionally structured the film to debunk 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 ten 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 willingness, 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 principal actors 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.
Reception
Critical reaction to the film was more positive than negative, with most critics praising the elegant, understated performances.
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 dialogue from which the film got its title. However, after the assassination of Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968, this line was removed from the film, so by August 1968, almost all theater showings of this film had this line omitted. As early as 1969, the line was restored to many but not most prints, and the line was preserved in the VHS and DVD versions of the film as well.
Stanley Kramer directed a remake for television in 1975. The 2005 film Guess Who starring Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac is a loose remake, with the racial roles reversed; black parents are caught off-guard when their daughter brings home the young white man she has chosen to marry. Critics found the subject matter badly dated.
References
^ Joel Whitburn, Top Pop Albums 1955-2001 (Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, 2001), 1018.
