Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Stanley Kramer was no stranger to the subject of racism. Growing up Jewish in New York City’s Hells Kitchen during the early part of the 1900’s he experienced plenty of anti-semitism. Later, as he began to establish himself as a filmmaker in Hollywood he would channel those experiences into films that not only addressed the subject of racism but met it head-on, attacking the realities of the days when people of different races couldn’t drink from the same water fountain or had to carry around The Green Book to see where it was safe to spend the night when traveling. Segregation was a serious issue in 1958 when he directed The Defiant Ones, a film about two escaped convicts chained to each other that happen to be different colors. The overlying theme of The Defiant Ones is that a lack of knowledge of each other is what keeps us segregated. Less than a decade later the United States of America was embattled in a civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Junior was preaching equal rights and marching on Selma, Alabama, and interracial marriages were illegal in about a third of the states. The Loving Family, a young interracial couple, were facing imprisonment over their marriage and geared up to take their case before the Supreme Court. It was a tumultuous time for this country.

In the wake of this growing movement for equal rights and considerations, Stanley Kramer started work on a film that Columbia Pictures didn’t want to make. Their opinion was that America was not ready for a mainstream film that tackled the subject of interracial marriage. They couldn’t outright say this was their reason to block the making of the film so they instead used the ailing Spencer Tracy as a reason to halt production. Tracy was is very poor health and unable to be insured for the production at the time. Kramer was undeterred, though, and convinced co-star Katherine Hepburn to, along with himself, defer their salaries as collateral should Tracy die before filming was complete. Painted into a corner, Columbia Pictures relented and filming commenced on one of the most important films of the 1960’s. Spencer survived the production but succumbed to his illness shortly afterwards. Katherine Hepburn, his long time companion, had troubles even viewing the finished film because of his passing.

The film tells a story of two people who met in Hawai’i and fell immediately in love. The man, Dr. John Wade Prentice (Sydney Poitier) and the woman, Joanna Drayton (Katharine Houghton) travel to San Francisco to spring the sudden love affair on her parents complete with their plans to get married. John is very much in love with Joanna but fears that because he is a black man and she is white that there will be some reticence, even outright hostility from Joanna’s parents over the idea of their marriage, and he knows for sure there will be the same sentiment from his own parents, especially his father. Joanna, however, doesn’t share these concerns and insists on getting the introductions out of the way rather than try to ease everyone into the idea.

After the shock wears off, Christina Drayton (Katherine Hepburn), Joanna’s mother, warms up to the idea of their marriage whereas her husband, Matt (Spencer Tracy), is having more trouble accepting it. Later that evening, once John’s parents arrive and are equally thrown for a loop about Joanna, the same concerns and anger come from John’s father, John Sr. (Roy E. Glenn Sr.) Dr. Prentice tells Christina and Matt that unless they both support the marriage without reservations he will call off the wedding because he refuses to be the cause of a rift between her and her parents. He’s flying off the Geneva the following day and Joanna will follow shortly for the wedding so it doesn’t leave anyone much time to decide how they feel about this all. Strong opinions abound with the only voices of reason coming from the mothers and family friend Monsignor Mike Ryan (Cecil Kellaway) who is not only for the union but chastises Matt for his outdated attitude.

In 1967 it was a bold statement to depict a black man and a white woman kissing on screen. This imagery was seen by some to be obscene and even as the film was being shot people in the cast and crew, Stanley Kramer included, received death threats over it. Tensions were high during the civil rights movement and not everybody was ready for that change. But that change was coming as the case of Loving v. Virginia would soon prove. The older generation had the hardest time understanding and supporting this change and it wasn’t just the white people, either. This is depicted by longtime housekeeper for the Draytons, Tillie (Isabel Sanford), who sees John as a black man “getting above himself.” She is instantly hostile towards him. In contrast, Dorothy (Barbara Randolph), has no problems flirting with, and dancing around with, the white delivery boy played by Skip Martin. For them, the younger generation, there is no “pigmentation” problem.

The film acknowledges that, no matter what the parents ultimately feel about the situation, there will be people out there that will never accept John and Joanna’s marriage. Their union will be filled with love but will also have many hardships for no other reason than the color of their skin and people’s perceptions of what that means. John’s words with his father illustrate that generational thinking better than anything else said in the film. “You see yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man.” Powerful words that carry with them a strong message about just how foolish and old fashioned it is to see people just for their skin color. John’s mother, Mary (Beah Richards) has some equally hard words with Matt about forgetting what real passion is. These words, more than all the arguing from his wife or the Monsignor, strike home.

It cannot be overstated just how important a film like this was during a time when so much was going on in America. It layed the situation out bare and dared people to have a legitimate objection to John and Joanna’s love. By making John a highly successful world renowned doctor and overall good person I t wiped away any legitimate reason to stand in the way of their marriage other than his race, forcing Matt, and audiences of the time, to confront their own prejudices head on. It was a brilliant move by Stanley Kramer and screenwriter William Rose to go this route and it earned both of them Academy Award nominations for it. The film isn’t subtle and, with a subject like this, it really shouldn’t be. It was tackling a sentiment that was still very prevalent in the United States that needed to be squashed. Columbia Pictures feared boycotts but the film was a financial success and helped many people take a good long look inside themselves and ask where they stood on the subject. It’s fitting that not long after, interracial marriage was made legal nationwide. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Stanley Kramer

Best Director: Stanley Kramer

Best Actor: Spencer Tracy

Best Actress: Katherine Hepburn (won)

Best Supporting Actor: Cecil Kellaway

Best Supporting Actress: Beah Richards

Best Original Screenplay: William Rose (won)

Best Art Direction: Robert Clatworthy and Frank Tuttle

Best Film Editing: Robert C. Jones

Best Original Song Score or Adaption Score: Frank De Vol

____________________________________________________

Release Date: December 12, 1967

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Sydney Poitier, Katherine Hepburn and Katherine Houghton

Directed By: Stanley Kramer