Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Overview:

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) was a Drama - Romance Film directed by Stanley Kramer and produced by Stanley Kramer and George Glass.

SYNOPSIS

A liberal white couple (Hepburn and Tracy, in Tracy's last appearance) put their platitudes to the test. They always taught their daughter (Houghton, Hepburn's niece) that all people are created equal, regardless of race or religion...until she unexpectedly brings home a black doctor (Poitier) and announces that they're engaged. Mostly interesting for a look at '60s attitudes toward race and the performances of Tracy and Hepburn.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

.

Academy Awards 1967 --- Ceremony Number 40 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActorSpencer TracyNominated
Best Supporting ActorCecil KellawayNominated
Best ActressKatharine HepburnWon
Best Supporting ActressBeah RichardsNominated
Best Art DirectionArt Direction: Robert Clatworthy; Set Decoration: Frank TuttleNominated
Best DirectorStanley KramerNominated
Best Film EditingRobert C. JonesNominated
Best Music - ScoringDeVolNominated
Best PictureStanley Kramer, ProducerNominated
Best WritingWilliam RoseWon
.

BlogHub Articles:

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? (1967): Love, Controversy, and Progress

By Margaret Perry on Oct 28, 2012 From The Great Katharine Hepburn

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? (1967): Love, Controversy, and Progress Turner Classic Movies will conclude their month of Spencer Tracy today, 29 October, with an evening of the four films he made with director Stanley Kramer. GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967) was Spencer Tracy's final film an... Read full article


GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? (1967): Love, Controversy, and Progress

By Margaret Perry on Oct 28, 2012 From The Great Katharine Hepburn

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? (1967): Love, Controversy, and Progress Labels: 1960s, Beah Richards, Civil Rights, Isabel Sanford, Kathy Houghton, Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy, Stanley Kramer, TCM Turner Classic Movies will conclude their month of Spencer Tracy today, 29 October, wit... Read full article


See all Guess Who's Coming to Dinner articles

Quotes from

[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?


John: You listen to me. You say you don't want to tell me how to live my life. So what do you think you've been doing? You tell me what rights I've got or haven't got, and what I owe to you for what you've done for me. Let me tell you something. I owe you nothing! If you carried that bag a million miles, you did what you're supposed to do! Because you brought me into this world. And from that day you owed me everything you could ever do for me like I will owe my son if I ever have another. But you don't own me! You can't tell me when or where I'm out of line, or try to get me to live my life according to your rules. You don't even know what I am, Dad, you don't know who I am. You don't know how I feel, what I think. And if I tried to explain it the rest of your life you will never understand. You are 30 years older than I am. You and your whole lousy generation believes the way it was for you is the way it's got to be. And not until your whole generation has lain down and died will the dead weight of you be off our backs! You understand, you've got to get off my back! Dad... Dad, you're my father. I'm your son. I love you. I always have and I always will. But you think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man. Now, I've got a decision to make, hm? And I've got to make it alone, and I gotta make it in a hurry. So would you go out there and see after my mother?


Matt Drayton: Now Mr. Prentice, clearly a most reasonable man, says he has no wish to offend me but wants to know if I'm some kind of a *nut*. And Mrs. Prentice says that like her husband I'm a burned-out old shell of a man who cannot even remember what it's like to love a woman the way her son loves my daughter. And strange as it seems, that's the first statement made to me all day with which I am prepared to take issue... cause I think you're wrong, you're as wrong as you can be. I admit that I hadn't considered it, hadn't even thought about it, but I know exactly how he feels about her and there is nothing, absolutely nothing that you son feels for my daughter that I didn't feel for Christina. Old- yes. Burned-out- certainly, but I can tell you the memories are still there- clear, intact, indestructible, and they'll be there if I live to be 110. Where John made his mistake I think was in attaching so much importance to what her mother and I might think... because in the final analysis it doesn't matter a damn what we think. The only thing that matters is what they feel, and how much they feel, for each other. And if it's half of what we felt- that's everything. As for you two and the problems you're going to have, they seem almost unimaginable, but you'll have no problem with me, and I think when Christina and I and your mother have some time to work on him you'll have no problem with your father, John. But you do know, I'm sure you know, what you're up against. There'll be 100 million people right here in this country who will be shocked and offended and appalled and the two of you will just have to ride that out, maybe every day for the rest of your lives. You could try to ignore those people, or you could feel sorry for them and for their prejudice and their bigotry and their blind hatred and stupid fears, but where necessary you'll just have to cling tight to each other and say "screw all those people"! Anybody could make a case, a hell of a good case, against your getting married. The arguments are so obvious that nobody has to make them. But you're two wonderful people who happened to fall in love and happened to have a pigmentation problem, and I think that now, no matter what kind of a case some bastard could make against your getting married, there would be only one thing worse, and that would be if - knowing what you two are and knowing what you two have and knowing what you two feel- you didn't get married. Well, Tillie, when the hell are we gonna get some dinner?


read more quotes from Guess Who's Coming to Dinner...

Facts about

According to the time the movie was made (in the 60s) and the place where the couple have met (Hawaii), Sidney Poitier's line: "your daughter is optimistic, she thinks our child will be President of the United States" (as well as Spencer Tracy's answer) has gained a greater importance since Obama's election.
Mr Prentice (Roy Glenn) says to his son John (Sidney Poitier) "In 16 or 17 states you'll be breaking the law. You'll be criminals." By the time people saw the movie this was no longer true. On June 12th, 1967, the US Supreme Court in the case Loving v Virginia declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional.
Katharine Hepburn's character's daughter is played by Hepburn's actual niece Katharine Houghton
read more facts about Guess Who's Coming to Dinner...
Share this page:
Visit the Classic Movie Hub Blog CMH
Best Actress Oscar 1967






See more Best Actress awards>>
Also directed by Stanley Kramer




More about Stanley Kramer >>
Also produced by Stanley Kramer




More about Stanley Kramer >>
Also released in 1967




See All 1967 films >>
More "Romance (Drama)" films



See All "Romance (Drama)" films >>
More "Marriage" films



See All "Marriage" films >>
More "Prejudice" films



See All "Prejudice" films >>