Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Directed by Stanley Kramer
Written by William Rose
1967/USA
Columbia Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Tillie: All hell done broke loose now![/box]

I don’t like most, if not all, movies produced or directed by Stanley Kramer.  This one, as usual, rang false to me – starting with its Oscar-winning screenplay.

Young Joey Drayton (Katharine Haughton) meets a John Prentice in Hawaii and spends a very romantic ten days with him culminating in a marriage proposal, which she accepts. The man happens to be black. He is also just so happens to be a genius tropical disease researcher that looks exactly like Sidney Portier.  She takes him to meet her wealthy parents, Matt (Spencer Tracy) and Christina (Katharine Hepburn).  Matt is a famous liberal newspaper owner and Christina is a free-spirited art gallery proprietor.  Joey is sure her parents will warmly welcome John into the family.  John is not so sure and tells Matt privately that he will not marry Joey if her parents object.  He is departing for Geneva the next day.

In the meantime, John calls his parents (Roy Glenn and Beah Richards) to break the news. They decide to take a quick flight from LA to San Francisco to meet the intended.  Good thing because Joey decides to join John in flying out the next day.  They are flabbergasted that she is white.  Both sets of parents are worried about the future of an interracial couple.  But with this plot and avuncular wise man Monsignor Ryan (Cecil Kellaway) on hand, the outcome is never in doubt.

The acting is mostly great with the exception of the terribly over-earnest Houghton.  And what cinema fan could miss Hepburn and Tracy together for the last time?  But the actors are forced to speak in trite speeches.  I agree with all the sentiments expressed but they were irritating the hell out of me by the end.  You do get to see some San Francisco scenery, which is always a plus.  I would say this movie was dated from the day it was released.  Others apparently like it for some reason.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner won Academy Awards for Best Actress (Hepburn) and Best Screenplay, Written Directly for the Screen.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actor (Tracy, posthumously); Best Supporting Actor (Kellaway); Best Supporting Actress (Richards); Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Film Editing; and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment.