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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.8/10   10,003 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 36% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Stanley Kramer
Writer:
William Rose (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
12 December 1967 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Romance more
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
Awards:
Won 2 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 20 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(9 articles)
Today In Movie History: Guess Who’S Comming To Dinner
 (From Hollywood Outbreak. 11 December 2008, 7:30 AM, PST)

Gere Won't Be Coming To Dinner
 (From WENN. 17 September 2008, 12:04 AM, PDT)

User Comments:
"That's the story of....... That's the Glory of Love" more

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
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Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Runtime:
108 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Colour:
Colour (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Katharine Hepburn had to use her salary as backing in order to make this movie because Spencer Tracy was so ill that the studio didn't think that he would make to the end of the picture more
Goofs:
Continuity: The way Poitier hold/talks on the phone with his father, inviting him to dinner is inconsistent between shots. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
John: You know, I just had a thought. Why don't I go check into a hotel and get some rest, and you go find your folks?
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Planting the Seeds of Evil (2006) (V) more
Soundtrack:
Glory of Love more

FAQ

How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
Do John and Joey get married?
Where did John and Joey meet?
more
16 out of 28 people found the following comment useful:-
"That's the story of....... That's the Glory of Love", 2 March 2006
9/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

I wrote a review for IMDb about the film Saratoga which I got some bad criticism for. It was obvious that Jean Harlow was seriously ill making this rather pedestrian film about folks at the racetrack. No serious drama of significance here, why wasn't the poor woman getting medical attention.

Looking at Spencer Tracy it also is obvious he's in pretty bad shape, but he at 67 was two generations older than his co-star Jean Harlow at MGM in their salad days. And this final film of his and final screen partnership with Katharine Hepburn had a lot more of a significant message than Saratoga did. It's enobling in its own way to see how much faith Spencer Tracy had in the project.

Oh, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is certainly dated now. But back in 1967 it was daring enough. Tracy and Hepburn who for the fourth time in their nine films play a husband and wife from the start, get the news that their daughter Katharine Houghton is getting married to an older man who is a widower. Oh and by the way, she's marrying Sidney Poitier who's a doctor.

Getting a doctor for a son-in-law would be reason enough for celebration in most homes, but interracial marriage was still a daring topic. As Roy Glenn who is Poitier's father reminds him, he's still breaking the law in 1967 in about 17 states. The film is about how Tracy and Hepburn and Glenn and his wife Beah Richards deal with the news.

Hepburn won her second Oscar for this film and she's the character on screen most of the time. Her best moment comes when she fires Virginia Christine who works for her and rushes to Hepburn's side to express "concern" for her.

One of the things that made Spencer Tracy the great player he was, was that incredible ability he had to make the audience feel he was listening. My favorite scene of his in the film is when Beah Richards is alone with him on the porch and she compares him with her husband how the two of them have forgotten all about romance. As she speaks the two of them are profiled against the screen, Richards to the left and Tracy to the right. Though Richards is in the foreground your attention is completely on Tracy and is reactions even though we're only seeing half of his face. Stole the scene without speaking a word.

I know so many people who profess liberalism in all things, but never can quite walk the walk when necessary. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is about that, putting your money where your mouth is.

Watching my VHS copy of it again this evening, the scene with Glenn and Poitier brought home something else to me. Just like Poitier and Houghton were illegal back in 1967 in some parts of America, it was only until 2003 that gay people were illegal in and of themselves in several states. And even now same sex couples battle for marriage rights and equality.

Maybe Guess Who's Coming to Dinner isn't quite so dated at that. And maybe Brokeback Mountain is the closest thing that gay people have to a Guess Who's Coming to Dinner right now.

But can you see in a few years a man or a woman bringing home a partner of the same sex to Mom and Dad and announcing they're getting married in Massachusetts?

Now that would be a great film.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Last 10 minutes ocknights71
A well meaning, but bad movie. v_goggo
Sidney's behaviour towards his father Cuneo
The real issue should be..... yztherumgone21
Not racist but... moviemaniathe1st
Mrs. Prentice rogerneon
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