Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Media:	DVD
Directed by:	Stanley Kramer
Starring:	Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn
Release date:	22 May, 2001
List price:	~~$14.94~~
Our price:	$10.93 that is 27% off!

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Average rating: Stars

Not a great film but an important one given the time and the actors

The American Film Institute listed "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" as one of the 100 Greatest American Films of All Time and as much as I am a fan of Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Sidney Poitier, my immediate reaction is that the film is not that good. The question is then whether this is a great film or simply an important film. If it is a great film it is because of the great speech that Tracy's character gives at the end of the film, but the great irony is that when we listen to this speech today the emotion comes not from watching a father supporting his daughter's decision to marry a man of another color. Instead it comes from the fact that Tracy would be dead days after they finished filming the movie and that when Matt Drayton talks about how much he loves his wife Christine, everybody now hears Spencer Tracy talking about his love for Katharine Hepburn who is looking at him with eyes brimming over with tears. Only Tracy could nod and shake his head and make it work. It is a great moment, but is it enough to make it a great film?

I have no problem with the idea that "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" is an important film, even if that judgment is ultimately based on the fact that director Stanley Kramer got the film made. This is a film about interracial marriage made in 1967 and set in that same time frame. Prior to that what did Hollywood have to point to that was anything similar besides various versions of "Showboat"? I first saw this movie at a theater on an U.S. Air Force Base in Japan, and I can remember the young Africa-American airmen really enjoying the movie, and why not? There is Sidney Poitier standing up to Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn demanding to marry their daughter. If that is not the fulfillment of the American Dream and evidence of racial equality, then what more is needed?

It is certainly true that Kramer stacks the deck. Poitier's John Prentice is a walking saint, constructed so that the only possible objection to him could be his race (unless you want to take a feeble stab at arguing he is too old for Joey or that he is so busy hopping around the world doing good deeds to make a decent husband). But Kramer cannot be faulted for setting up the proposition in black and white terms because that is exactly what is needed. The supporting cast provides comic relief in the form of Cecil Kellaway as Monsignor Ryan and Isabel Sanford as Tillie, and there are moments dealing with Oregon Boysenberry and meat deliveries that let us know that the subject matter is serious, but not super serious (which also works in the film's favor since that suggests Kramer is not so much advocating a change as recognizing one has already taken place). Kramer also employs more subtle arguments for equality, the most important being when John's mother (Beah Richards) and father (Roy E. Glenn, Sr.) show up and are presented and treated as equals by the Draytons.

"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" is not the last word on race relations in the United States circa the late 1960s, but in cinematic terms it is more properly considered the first word. How many people asked themselves whether they would let their daughter marry a Negro? I am sure the question was asked by millions of Americans, even if they did not see the movie because when it opened the question became inevitable. Even if the answer was "no" that sort of admission, publicly or privately, forces people to come up with reasons why and at that point you have the start of a debate, internal or otherwise. This was an important film in its time and place, and that is the context in which it is should be understood and appreciated, even if we also treasure the film because we believe that at the end of Tracy's speech one of the greatest actors of the 20th century is for a brief but significant moment no longer acting.

Final Note: I must comment on the irony that while Spencer Tracy was nominated for an Oscar for his last performance and did not win because the Academy was still years away from letting someone who had died win, the next two women to win Best Actress Oscars did so because of his death. Hepburn won her second Oscar for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" in what is really a pedestrian role compared to those of Tracy and Poitier, and the actress always insisted the award was for both her and Tracy. The next year Hepburn won again for "The Lion in Winter" with Ingrid Bergman announcing there was a tie with Barbra Streisand for "Funny Girl." I will suggest that there was at least one member of the Academy who did not vote for Hepburn's great performance because she had won the year before, which would have broken the tie and Streisand would never have had the chance to say "Hello, Gorgeous." Meanwhile, Poitier turned out to be his own worst enemy when it came to getting an Oscar nomination that year since voters could not choose this performance over the ones he turned in for "In the Heat of the Night" and "To Sir With Love," one of the best acting trifectas for one year of all time.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and more

Oldie but goodie

Great! Clean entertainment! I luv oldies even though I'm in my 30's

Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and more - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Their last is their most powerful

Many critic want to dismiss this film as outdated and not relavent but this film will always be required viewing.

Filmed at the height of the civil rights movement, this film asks, how liberal can parents be when civil rights enters their home.

Spence and Kate are a couple who brought up their only child to look beyond a person's skin color. But what they never think could happen is that their daughter would fall in love with a black man! Of course his parents have similar misgivings.

This movie is a series of great scenes. Each actor has their moment but the two scenes that are forever classics. the first is between Beah Richards and Spencer Tracy where she talks about love and how when you get older you forget about what young love is like. The second is Spence's final monologue which sums up the entire film.

This film won Oscars for Best Actress (Kate) and Screenplay. It also marked the end of the Spencer Tracey legacy.