Review of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) by Matt K — 10 Apr 2008

I have heard and read a lot of criticism of this film in recent years, most of it having to do with the fact that the film is "dated.".

DUH.

It's a 1967 picture about racism and the complications facing the potential marriage between a black man and a white woman. OF COURSE it's going to be dated. That's one of the things I love about this movie. I like taking a history lesson into the sixties, seeing how people dressed, hearing the music used, checking out the architecture, the furniture, the language of the day, the philosophies of the day. I want to see something from the sixties when I turn on this film.

I also want to see legendary acting talent at work and it doesn't get more legendary than this cast - and I don't mean Tracy and Hepburn and Poitier; there is also Isabel Sanford and the late, great Beah Richards. Katharine Houghton is an actress few remember now but you can see how lovely she was, as a beauty and as an actor.

The merits of the film making aside, the trip into the past inside, the sharp writing aside, there is also the fact that (whether it is then or forty years later, whether you call the movie dated or not) this issue is still relevant. Every mixed race couple (that I know) still battles prejudice and stigma - and they have discussed it with me. You may think things have changed since then; but as a non caucasian living in 2008 I can tell you:

Things ain't changed that much.

The movie is worth a look for the scene where Hepburn fires Nancy Olson and for the famed final monologue by Mr Tracy; even if you skip through the rest of the movie, these two scenes are worth your time.