Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
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- For other uses, see Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (disambiguation).Template:Infobox Movie
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is a 1967 award-winning comedy-drama movie starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Houghton.
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 centers around Joanna’s return to her liberal upper class American home bringing her new fiancé to dinner to meet her parents, and the reaction of family and friends.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for screenwriter, William Rose. The 1967 groundbreaking story dealt with the then-controversial subject of interracial marriage which was still then illegal in several U.S. states. According to Kramer, he and Rose intentionally debunked ethnic stereotypes; the young doctor, a typical role for the young Sidney Poiter, was purposely created idealistically perfect so that the only possible objection to his marrying Joanna would be his race. 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 accomodate 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 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 ten days after the shooting ended). It also featured Roy Glenn and Beah Richards as Mr. and Mrs. Prentice.
See also
The film was loosely remade as Guess Who in 2005.