Review of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) by Bradford G — 02 Sep 2009

A young white woman brings her black fiance home to meet her parents. The situation truly tests their open-mindedness and understanding. Hepburn and Tracy (in his last film appearance) are wonderful and serve as the anchors in what would otherwise have been a rather sugary film. Houghton, who portrays the independent daughter, is the real-life niece of Hepburn.

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? (1967) is one of actor Sidney Poitier's most well-known films, released a few years after Lilies of the Field (1963), in which he won an Academy Award for best actor - the first Oscar won by a black man.

The film looks at inter-racial relationships in the US at a time when inter-racial marriage was illegal in 14 states.

Thanks to director Stanley Kramer and writer William Rose, some stereotypes of African-Americans in the film industry had finally been broken (of course, to this day, racial stereotypes haven't been eradicated from the industry by any means!).

Katharine Hepburn, who played the liberal, white mother at the centre of the story, won an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Spencer Tracy, who played the father, died only a fortnight after the movie's release and was very ill during filming.

I think that the moment where Poitier's character speaks with his father for eight minutes is pivotal to the film and well, all I can say is see the film. It is as relevant today as it was thirty-eight years ago.