Product Details

• Actors: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Katherine Houghton Sidney Poitier
• Directors: Stanley Kramer
• Producers: Stanley Kramer
• Format: NTSC, Color, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, Original recording remastered
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: RCA/Columbia
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000JP9QX8
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #21,376 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

1967's Guess Who's Coming To Dinner probably raised more than a few eyebrows at the time of it's release. Sadly though, if you can not put yourself in the mindset of that time, the potential emotional impact of the film will be lost on you. Set in the San Fransisco of the late 1960's, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner tells the story of Joey Drayton (Katharine Houghton) bringing her boyfriend of a mere 10 days, Dr. John Wade Prentice (Sidney Poitier), home to meet her parents. What the parents (played by Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn) don't know she is coming home or that she has a fiance who happens to be African-American and 14 years her senior. Dr. Prentice informs Joey's parents of his intentions to marry their daughter, but also informs them he will not marry Joanna without their permission. To further complicate matters though, they only have this one day to decide if they approve as he is due to leave for Geneva Switzerland for a job. What ensues is a family's hopes and dreams for their daughter being analyzed and re-thought in the span of a mere few hours. Trying to decide if their daughter's happiness should outweigh the inevitable hardships she will face in a relationship such as this. Spencer Tracy's final performance was in this well-meaning, handsome film by Stanley Kramer. The film has been knocked over the years for padding conflict and stoking easy liberalism by making Poitier's character in every socioeconomic sense a good catch. But what if Kramer had made this stranger a factory worker? Would the audience still accept this mixed-race relationship? But there's no denying the drawing power of this movie, which gets most of its integrity from the stirring performances of Tracy and Hepburn. When the former (who had been so ill that the production could not get completion insurance) gives a speech toward the end about race, love, and much else, it's impossible not to be affected by the last great moment in a great actor's life and career.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars When you look into their faces are you convinced? YES!, July 16, 2009

By	Meredith Folsom (Half Moon Bay, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

It took a long time for me to get around to Sidney Poitier as a concerted effort, but here I am and wow, what a great actor. All the actors in this film are absolutely superb. It's practically an on the edge of your seat suspense film. I wouldn't want to spoil the suspense and tell you how, except to say that you are never sure of the outcome until the end and you keep hoping that it will convince you too. And it does. So very well. These faces are so real in the believability of the thoughts their mouths are speaking, and they are the same thoughts you'll have. Quite a ride, and some nice glimpses of San Francisco along the way.