Palaest recommended

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Earl Gosnell "Guess Who's Coming" opens with a shot of a United airplane in flight. Because of the angle of the wings, the sun reflects bright white off one and dark off the other. This uniting of black and white portends the plot where 23-year-old Joanna (Joey) Drayton (Katherine Houghton) flies from Hawaii to San Francisco to surprise her mom Christina Drayton (Katharine Hepburn) and dad Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) with her new beau 37-year-old Dr. John Prentice (Sidney Poitier). Since her parents have been liberal about race relations all along, she expects, "There's no problem."Desmond Morris (best known for his book *The Naked Ape*) observes human interactions in *Manwatching* (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1974, 169): "If we see something that excites us, whether with pleasure or fear, our pupils expand. If we see something mildly distasteful, they contract." On the following page he relates about, "when liberally minded people were shown photographs of black males kissing white females. Although all the subjects spoke approvingly of racial equality, their pupils split them neatly into two groups--the liberals 'at heart' whose pupils matched their stated beliefs, and the 'merely persuaded' liberals, or perhaps pseudo-liberals, who, despite their praise for racial integration, revealed pinprick pupils when confronted with the black-kissing-white display."The suspense of the film lies in trying to guess which categories the parents will settle into.The colored maid and the suitor's black father both hold forth that the Negro doctor is exceeding his station in life. The white dad admits to being "flabbergasted." Everyone cautions the starry-eyed couple that it might not end well. This is an eminent example of (Prov. 30:21-22) "the earth is disquieted, and it cannot bear: for a servant when he reigneth."This is supposed to be a rare Hollywood message movie. But there are messages and there are messages. One message I read by subtracting 7 years from the lives of the couple, to get a 16-year-old girl and a 30-year-old guy, the exact same age difference between a once 30-year-old Roy Moore now in the news and the 16-year-olds that he was purportedly interested in at that age. His marriage to one of them did turn out just fine. Can it be we Yankees are overly judgmental on the southerners who are more accepting of age difference, just as the South was more judgmental about race? The second message is what if your family is not so liberal? One should perhaps not date someone from a class he or she could never marry into; if they fall in love, what then? Here the couple fell in love 20 minutes after meeting. That would seem to rationalize against fraternization.Typically, in a Hollywood film, love conquers all. We certainly have a cast to give us hope to pull it off. Sidney Poitier is the only Negro actor at the time a White audience could abide in a leading role. The actresses were just the ones to tug at the heart strings. Notwithstanding the great acting here, Poitier and Houghton just didn't have any chemistry together. For supposedly being in love, they simply didn't look at each other often enough. Furthermore, Portier's speech inflections were nowhere near those of his character's parents making it hard to believe he was their son. The movie was redeemed in part by Billy Hill's song, "The Glory of Love," played in various forms throughout."Guess Who is Coming to Dinner" was directed by Stanley Kramer, with Ray Gosnell the assistant director. The Gosnell clan (of whom I am one) originally hailed from Virginia; perhaps that accounts for all the southern style hospitality shown in the film. It was released 50 years before I just now saw it, back in December, 1967. It just got accepted into a national archive to preserve culturally significant films. Its "message" has to do with things perhaps changing in fifty or a hundred years. I wouldn't hold my breath. It probably has application to other "special difficulties" as well.It followed the template of a play, more or less, with limited fixed settings and heavy dialog. I wasn't overly impressed by it.

HotToastyRag When Katharine Houghton returns home to San Francisco from a ten-day Hawaiian cruise, she's deliriously happy. She's fallen in love, wants to get married, and has brought her intended home to meet her parents, Katharine Hepburn—her aunt in real life—and Spencer Tracy. On paper, everything's perfect. He's a doctor, a humanitarian, morally respectful, and in love with their daughter. When they meet him, though, Kate and Spence are a little surprised. Their daughter wants to marry Sidney Poitier, and while they raised her to be as color-blind as possible, they're not particularly thrilled that she's chosen to marry a black man in the 1960s.If you haven't seen Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, you're missing out on an iconic piece of American cinema. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards, taking home the gold for Best Actress and Best Screenplay, and it's one of the most defining films of the decade. While Sidney Poitier was universally ignored for this film during the awards season, and for the other famous film he made that year, In the Heat of the Night, his role and performance were etched in film history. There's a line Sidney says after Spencer voices his concerns about the difficulties of raising bi-racial children, and at the time it was merely considered cute and full of wishful thinking: "Johanna feels that all of our children will be President of the United States. . . I'd settle for Secretary of State." Watching the film now gives that line an entirely different meaning.While all the performances in the film are wonderful, watching Katharine Hepburn and her longtime love Spencer Tracy is bittersweet. In their ninth film together, Spence's health was failing drastically. He died seventeen days after filming completed, and Kate never saw the finished product because it would have been too painful. He gives a very famous speech about true love that brings tears to the audience's eyes, not only because it's a well-written speech, but because it's clear he's speaking about his on screen and offscreen partner.Each character has his or her own fondly remembered lines and speeches in the film: Kate's unforgettable recitation of the title; Spence's Oregon boosenberry ice cream scene and "that's everything" monologue; Sidney's "get off my back" speech; Katharine's "Isn't it just!" exclamation; and Isabel Sanford's line that proves she's clinically blind, saying Sidney Poitier isn't good-looking. I remember watching this movie as a kid, not understanding why anyone would have a problem welcoming Sidney Poitier into the family, and of course being terribly jealous of Katharine Houghton. I've had a crush on him ever since, but whatever reason you watch the film, for the Americana, acting, writing, or eye candy, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Hitchcoc Let's not settle our 2016 values on this film. Interracial marriage is so commonplace these days. Not that it is accepted very well in many places. This film is one of the first to address the issue and it is not tame. When the young people go to the home of the white folks, there is a moment when a nuclear explosion may hit. Spencer Tracy always had a slow burn and he utilizes it well here. Still, it is too much for him at the beginning. One has to wonder if even the more liberal viewers of marriage knew that this was a road to a difficult life. Even today, it's a hard road to travel at times. One thing I appreciated was that we got the perspective from both sides, especially Sidney's father. Racial issues aren't always a one way street. This film needs to be seen even if one might think it dated.

Keith937 All I can say about this movie is that it is alright. Its well made and well acted throughout the movie and pretty entertaining. This movie is about a black man trying to marry a white woman. Because of this this movie has historical significance and a really meaningful meaning. This was an entertaining enough movie to recommend to others but it is nothing majorly special where I would tell someone that they have to go out and see it. I would also say its more of a one time watch because I don't think that it is worth watching more then once. Even though this is historically significant I still wouldn't say its something you need to go rush and see unless you're really into that kind of history.