Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Short description
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is a 1967 American comedy-drama about Joey Drayton, a young white woman from a well-off San Francisco family, who comes home with the man she intends to marry. He is John Prentice, a respected African American doctor, and he has made clear that he will only go through with the wedding if her parents approve without reservation. Her mother, Christina, accepts the match, but her father, Matt, an opinionated publisher, struggles with it, even though he has long considered himself liberal. John's own parents are uneasy as well, and the two families must confront their feelings when they meet. Spencer Tracy plays Matt, Katharine Hepburn plays Christina, Sidney Poitier plays John, and Katharine Houghton plays Joey.
Stanley Kramer directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by William Rose. It arrived in 1967, the seventh of the nine features Kramer directed and a return, after several large-scale dramas, to a smaller contemporary subject. The cast, including Cecil Kellaway and Beah Richards, numbers 22 credited performers. Made for about 4 million dollars, it took roughly 57 million dollars worldwide, a strong return for a dialogue-driven film.
Audience response has been durable: on IMDb it holds 7.8 from about 53,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.6 from around 939 votes. A critics' rating of 7 out of 10 from 38 reviews sits close to those audience scores, suggesting broad agreement about the film's merits.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was still in theaters when Martin Luther King (1929-1968) was assassinated. Originally, the film included a line from Katharine Hepburn's character addressed to a maid, stating that they would have a guest for lunch, to which the maid replied, 'Who—Reverend Martin Luther King?' After King's assassination, the studio called the theaters showing the film and ordered this line to be cut.
- Due to Spencer Tracy's (1900-1967) state of health, the actors and crew members always carried two shooting scripts—one with Tracy and one without him. Typically, Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) would drive Tracy to the set in the morning; they worked until she began to feel that he was tired, after which Hepburn and Tracy would leave. Sidney Poitier, who had already won an Oscar for Best Actor for Ralph Nelson's drama Lilies of the Field (1963), felt intimidated by the two living legends of cinema and filmed his scenes separately.
- In a scene toward the end of the film, in which Spencer Tracy's character delivers his famous monologue, Katharine Hepburn is shown crying in the background. The tears were not acted: she knew how ill he was, and she was moved by the words about how true love does not fade with the years.
- This film was the last in actor Spencer Tracy's career. To allow the insurance company to approve Spencer Tracy's participation while ill, the fees of Katharine Hepburn and Stanley Kramer were frozen, in case the film needed to be reshot with another actor.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
