Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
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| Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Insights | |
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 original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Stanley Kramer |
| Produced by | George Glass and Stanley Kramer |
| Written by | William Rose |
| Starring | Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Houghton |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 12, 1967 |
| Running time | 108 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4,000,000 USD (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is a 1967 Academy Award-winning comedy-drama film starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Houghton.
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[edit] 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 in San Francisco, bringing her new fiancé to dinner to meet her parents, and the reaction of family and friends.
[edit] Information
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for screenwriter, William Rose. (Katharine Hepburn also won the Academy Award for Best Actress.) 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 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 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 dialogue 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, 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. 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.
[edit] Awards
- 1967: Academy Award for Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn)
- 1967: Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay
- 1969: BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor (Spencer Tracy)
- 1969: BAFTA Film Award for Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn)
[edit] Trivia
- The film was loosely remade as Guess Who in 2005.
- The plot of Shrek 2 has some similarities to Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.
- The plot of Guess Who's Coming To Dinner appears to be based, in part, on the 1961 British film Flame In The Streets, starring John Mills.
- In the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the character Pavel Chekov alludes to this film in a throw away line "Guess who's coming to dinner?" on hearing that a Klingon delegation is coming for dinner on board the Starship Enterprise.
- In an episode of the television sitcom Designing Women, the character of Suzanne Sugarbaker (Delta Burke)alludes to the film but refers to it as "There's Some Black People Coming Over For Dinner".
- The track and album Guess Who's Coming To Dinner by reggae band Black Uhuru allude to this film, but add an extra twist by answering the question with the refrain "Natty Dreadlocks", a reference to the fact that Rastafarians are often ostracised by the establishment, even in Jamaica.
- The film is referenced in the Friends season 6 episode "The One Where Ross Got High". When Monica Gellar asks Chandler Bing "guess who's coming to dinner tonight?" he replies "Sidney Poitier?"
- In the animated television series The Boondocks and episode "Guess Hoe's Coming to Dinner" where Granddad brings home a prostitute parodies the concept.
[edit] External links
Woman of the Year (1942) • Keeper of the Flame (1942) • Without Love (1945) • The Sea of Grass (1947) • State of the Union (1948) • Adam's Rib (1949) • Pat and Mike (1952) • Desk Set (1957) • Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Not as a Stranger • The Pride and the Passion • The Defiant Ones • On the Beach • Inherit the Wind • Judgment at Nuremberg • It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World • Ship of Fools • Guess Who's Coming to Dinner • The Secret of Santa Vittoria • R.P.M. • Bless the Beasts & Children • Oklahoma Crude • The Domino Principle • The Runner Stumbles
