Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is about a mother, Christina, and father, Matt, (Kate and Spence) who welcome back their daughter Joey and SURPRISE! her fiance John from a trip to Hawaii - everything sounds wonderful until they find out that he is black....and as they are white, it comes as quite a shock. Certainly in this days it wasn't nearly as accepted, in fact, it was banned in 14 (or 17?) states. Christina, though shocked at first, decides that Joey and John are quite in love and is therefore accepting of the marriage so long as Joey is happy. Matt, however, is very unsure - scared of the future that they are making for each other and their kids, he decides that maybe he is not quite so accepting. Joey and John are leaving that very night and hope to get their parents' approval before they leave. Joey invites John's parents to join them for dinner, even though John has yet to tell them that Joey is white.....once they arrive and see her, they are shocked as well, taking similar views as Christina and Matt. The remainder of the movie is a series of conversations between parents and "kids", ultimately culminating in a GREAT Spence monologue - and I won't ruin the ending for you so you'll just have to see it.
I thought the acting in this movie was phenomenal but we are dealing with some real heavy hitters - Spence, Kate and even Sidney Poitier fresh off of an Oscar win for Lilies in the Field. I'm sure the movie was controversial at the time but it really hit the issue head on. That being said, I was watching a special on Sidney Poitier and they were talking about how, in the 60's, Poitier's characters were written to be very straight-laced - he had to be polite, educated, well spoken - this was how he had to pave the way for serious African American actors to come. I found that interesting because his character in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is pretty perfect - in fact, they don't even show he and Joey kiss, afraid audiences wouldn't like it. My, how times have changed.
If you HAVE seen this movie, do you remember the ice cream scene with Spence and Kate? Perhaps one of my favorite of this blog so far - SO hilarious.
On a side note, I said in an earlier post that the old man character in UP (Pixar) was modeled after Spencer Tracy (thanks for the info Julie!) and it could not have been more evident than in this movie!!!! So fantastic. Hence the reason I included the pic above :)
Its very sweet that you are old friends with "Kate and Spence". That both of them were acting into senior years, he right up to his death, is a tribute to their talents. I like this Tracy story: he was in a scene where his character was unshaven (in jail I think but not sure). But Tracy had shaved. I believe he disliked makeup trickery. He said "I'll just act unshaven." And he did.
ReplyDeleteOh goodie - finally some comments from Julia!! I'm so happy you finally saw this one. It's my favorite Tracy/Hepburn movie of all time! I'm not at all educated on the real lives and I am amazed to learn he died so soon after filming this. You would not have guessed it by his acting. Oh, and yes the ice cream scene is unforgettable!
ReplyDeleteThat is interesting about Portier having to be perfect because his character is the ultimate gentleman.