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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer:
William Rose (written by)
Release Date:
12 December 1967 (USA)
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Tagline:
a love story of today
Plot:
Matt and Christina Drayton are a couple whose attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Won 2 Oscars.
Another 7 wins
&
20 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(14 articles)
90210 2.10 "To Thine Own Self Be True" Recap
(From TVovermind.com. 18 November 2009, 4:11 PM, PST)
PGA Honors Precious.
(From FilmExperience. 18 November 2009, 3:18 PM, PST)
(From TVovermind.com. 18 November 2009, 4:11 PM, PST)
PGA Honors Precious.
(From FilmExperience. 18 November 2009, 3:18 PM, PST)
User Comments:
Interesting idea, but cops out at the end
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US TV Schedule:
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Spencer Tracy | ... | Matt Drayton |
 | Sidney Poitier | ... | Dr. John Wade 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 |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
108 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Katharine Hepburn is the only movie star to win four Academy Awards (2009) for her leading roles in Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968), and On Golden Pond (1981).
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Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: Just before Drayton crashes his car into Frankie's, the dent on the side of Frankie's car is already present.
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Quotes:
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Party Monster (2003)
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Soundtrack:
Glory of Love
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FAQ
Do John and Joey get married?Is "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" based on a novel?
What did Joey mean when she likened her parents to the governor of Alabama?
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more (143 total)
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It's the late 1960s, a period of extreme unrest in the United States. The status of women, blacks, gays, college students, and draftees is being questioned and examined. But the unrest doesn't seem to have invaded the lives of the characters portrayed by Katherine Houghton and Sidney Poitier. She's a carefree early-twentysomething whose debut bow was probably the most strenuous moment of her life, and he's a widowed doctor in his late thirties who has risen above his humble beginnings (as the son of a mail carrier and, I presume, a housewife) to become internationally renowned. Oh, yeah, and she's white and he's black. And they met ten days ago in Hawaii. Oh, and they want to get married. Like, now. Is that okay, Mom and Dad?
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (in his last film role) portray Houghton's parents. Daddy's a newspaper publisher, and Mom toys around with the arts ... oh, piffle, she owns a gallery, nothing serious. Just pin money. They live in a mansion in the San Francisco "gentry ghetto" and are lovingly cared for by Tillie (Mrs. Jefferson didn't take no lip even back then) and Dorothy, the mod young thang in the psychedelic minidress. They are fashionably agnostic, although they cultivate the friendship of an affable old priest, and up until now, their laissez-faire outlook on social justice has never really been put to the test, as their priest pal observes with not inconsiderable amusement.
Roy Glenn and Beah Richards portray Poitier's parents. Pop's not too keen on the impending nuptials, and says as much in no uncertain terms, prompting Poitier to blithely retort that Pop's many sacrifices in raising his son to have a better life than he himself did were no more than his (Poitier's) due. That one scene put a bit of a tarnish on Dr. Perfecto for me, although he had also annoyed me thoroughly throughout the movie by pronouncing his ladylove's name as "Joanner." How veddy veddy blueblooded of him.
Anyhoo, this was Hollywood's take on the "miscegenation" issue in the turbulent late sixties, and since we know they had to be CAREFUL, it's not too surprising the way this story went. Everyone spent a lot of time baring their souls, climaxing with Beah Richards (the best part of the movie in my opinion) calmly asserting to Spencer Tracy that he must have forgotten what it's like to be in love, or he wouldn't be so worried about racial disparity. True enough, but in his place, I daresay I'd have worried about ANY daughter of mine wanting to marry someone after knowing him only ten days. But I digress.
I see from reading other comments that Spencer Tracy had to jump through quite a few hoops to even get to be in this film at all, and so I assume he was pleased with the way it turned out at the end -- he gets to make everyone shut up and listen to his long, blustery speech on his feelings about the whole situation and how he's decided that, doubts be damned, the happy couple should be given the blessings of all and let's all fly to Switzerland to see them married. Neatly tying up the film (except for a few teary shots of Katharine Hepburn, meant to bronze forever this final screen pairing of the long-term illicit lovers) and steamrollering over any other objections, then, everyone troops in to dinner. The benevolent Caucasian patriarch has spoken, and that's that.
Others have commented upon the overall "weirdness" of certain scenes -- the one of Dorothy dancing with the delivery boy, the visit to the drive in for ice cream, and Katharine Hepburn's dressing down and firing of Virginia Christine (poor Mrs. Oleson!). I have to agree that these scenes tend to stop the film cold and leave you wondering why they were included at all. Virginia Christine's appearance at the beginning of the movie made more than clear what her opinion about Poitier's and Houghton's even keeping company together, much less marrying, was. To bring her back as the great WASP avenger of young white feminine purity was a bit much.
So much more could have been done with this film, and it's rather sad in retrospect. The time when it could have been made effectively is gone forever, which is good for the most part. People take interracial marriages for granted today. That is as it should be. And I'm sure that this movie had at least a small part in influencing the change in thought and perspective. But it could still have done so much more.