Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

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Nominated in: 1968
Did it win? No, the Oscar went to In the Heat of the Night
Worth watching? Yes
Standout performance: Spencer Tracy as Matt Drayton, Sidney Poitier as Dr. John Wade Prentice
Watchfl’s favorite quote: “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!”
- Dr. Prentice

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is another 1968 Best Picture nominee, and I’m beginning to think that this was the year that Hollywood made the transition from old to new. We can see it in the subtle changes in artistic direction, but even more so in the content. Consider the year’s nominees and the controversy they created: In the Heat of the Night, The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, and of course our subject.

“Guess Who” is set in its own time period (1967). It is about an interracial couple who return to their native San Francisco from a whirlwind Hawaiian vacation to meet each other’s families and announce their engagement. Joey Drayton (Katharine Houghton) is a young white woman with self-described “liberal” parents (Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy). She is surprised by their shock and concern over the impending marriage. Her husband-to-be is Dr. John Wade Prentice (Sidney Poitier), an African American, slightly older widower. His character is intentionally written without flaws, so that any objection Joey’s parents could raise to the marriage would have to be racially-based.

Dr. Prentice has delayed telling his parents about the engagement, too. They are less than thrilled when the news is sprung on them at a dinner with the Draytons. What ensues are a series of fascinating differences of opinion between members of both families – different genders, races, and generations. While the issue seems outdated now, it is important to remember that at the time, interracial marriage was still illegal in many U.S. states until the year this film was released.

Guess Who is essentially filmed in “real time”: the action takes place over the course of one evening. Since all the “action” is dialogue, the film requires (and has) an all-star group of actors. All of them agreed to do the movie based on its premise, before even reading the script. Their commitment to the project is impressive. Spencer Tracy’s health was failing quickly, so shooting schedules had to revolve around him. Sidney Poitier shot many of his scenes without Tracy, talking to an empty chair. Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, his long-time partner and co-star, put their own salaries in escrow so that if he died during filming, his part could be replaced by another actor. He lived long enough to complete the project, and passed away only a few weeks after filming was completed. Rumor has it that during Tracy’s famous final monologue, Katharine Hepburn’s tears are real. She understood better than anyone that this was his final performance.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is a statement film, but it’s also more than that. It’s an homage to Spencer Tracy, one of the earliest “realistic” actors in an era when most of his contemporaries were still giving stylistic, overdone performances. It also surrounds him with a cast of equals; actors who all give strong, subdued performances and keep the movie artistically relevant today.

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Filed under 1960-1969 Oscar Nominees, Drama, Non-winners