Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Matt and Christina Drayton are a couple whose attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black.

Director:

Stanley Kramer

Writer:

William Rose

Stars:

Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn

Won 2 Oscars. Another 8 wins & 20 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Spencer Tracy	...	Matt Drayton
Sidney Poitier	...	John Prentice
Katharine Hepburn	...	Christina Drayton
Katharine Houghton	...	Joey Drayton
Cecil Kellaway	...	Monsignor Ryan
Beah Richards	...	Mrs. Prentice
Roy Glenn	...	Mr. Prentice (as Roy E. Glenn Sr.)
Isabel Sanford	...	Tillie (as Isabell Sanford)
Virginia Christine	...	Hilary St. George
Alexandra Hay	...	Carhop
Barbara Randolph	...	Dorothy
D'Urville Martin	...	Frankie
Tom Heaton	...	Peter
Grace Gaynor	...	Judith
Skip Martin	...	Delivery Boy

Storyline

Joey Drayton brings her fiancé, Dr. John Prentice, home to sunny San Francisco to meet her affluent parents. Their liberal persuasions are now put to the test, for although the young man is an ideal choice (he's highly and internationally respected in the medical field, and he's impeccably mannered, handsome, well dressed and of a respectable California family), he's black. The film, which covers one busy day in the Drayton home, is essentially a drawing-room comedy, a series of cross-conversations between the young doctor and the girl's parents, and finally between all sets of parents and offspring. A simple dinner is extended to include the doctor's parents, who fly up from Los Angeles for the evening, and the crusty but benevolent old Irish priest, a friend of the family. Thus, the title of the film . . .

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Plot Keywords:

doctor | dinner | father son relationship | world health organization | interracial romance | 

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Taglines:

a love story of today

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 December 1967 (USA)

Also Known As:

Rat mal, wer zum Essen kommt

Filming Locations:

Columbia/Sunset Gower Studios - 1438 N. Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$4,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$56,700,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the movie was conceived and launched by producer-director Stanley Kramer, one of Hollywood's greatest liberal movie-makers, intermarriage between African Americans and Caucasians was still illegal in 14 states. Towards the end of production, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Loving v. Virginia. The Loving decision was made on June 12, 1967, two days after the death of star Spencer Tracy, who had played a "phony" white liberal who grudgingly accepts his daughter's marriage to a black man. In Loving, the High Court unanimously ruled that anti-miscegenation marriage laws were unconstitutional. In his opinion, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote, "Marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State." Interestingly, Kramer kept in the line of the African American father played by Roy Glenn, who tells his son played by Sidney Poitier, "In 16 or 17 states you'll be breaking the law. You'll be criminals." This was probably because Kramer realized that, despite the change in the law, the couple would still be facing a great deal of prejudice requiring a stalwart love for their marriage to survive, which was the message Tracy's character gives in an eight-minute scene that is the climax of the movie. The scene summing up the theme of the movie was the last one the dying Tracy filmed for the movie, and it was the last time he would ever appear on film. It took a week to shoot the scene and at the end, he was given a standing ovation by the crew. He died a little over a fortnight after walking off of a sound-stage for the last time.

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Goofs

When Matt is dressing before dinner and talking to Monsignor Ryan, he begins to tie his tie. When the camera switches to a front view of him, he hasn't begun to tie it yet and is still buttoning his top button.

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Quotes

[first lines]
John: You know, I just had a thought. Why don't I go check into a hotel and get some rest, and you go find your folks?

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Connections

Referenced in DuckTales: Master of the Djinni (1987)

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Soundtracks

"Glory of Love"
(1936)
Written by Billy Hill
Sung by Jacqueline Fontaine at the restaurant
Sung offscreen by a chorus during opening and closing credits
Played in the score often

User Reviews

Good movie

I feel sorry for John Seal, the reviewer above, for his views on this movie, as well as his views on interracial marriage. I think this movie is excellent, I enjoyed the performances of all the actors and the message is important. Racial prejudice was common in 1967, and the very first interracial kiss on TV was still to come (it happened in 1969 on Star Trek). People needed to hear the message this movie contains, that color and race are not something that should prevent two people who love each other from marrying. I am a white American married to a Japanese female and I am proud that our children will grow up to live in a world where people have tolerance for different cultures and beliefs. It is sad to watch Spencer Tracy in this movie, knowing he died weeks after it was made. But it was nice that he could act with Katherine Hepburn, the love of his life, so close to his death. That must have made him happy.