Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is a 1967 racial drama released during a time when interracial marriage was banned in 16 southern states within America. The film was produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, one of Hollywood’s most fervent liberals who specialized in creating conscience raising films such as The Defiant Ones and Inherit the Wind.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner follows in the same Kramer tradition, and while its stance on race in America should be applauded for its (at that time) progressive nature, Kramer’s insistence in drenching the film with an over abundance of sixties hipster culture has not helped the film stand the test of time, while its pretentious liberal back slapping conveys a smugly elitist tinge throughout.      

The film focuses on upper class San Francisco couple Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) the owner of a popular progressive newspaper, and his wife Christina (Katherine Hepburn) who owns an art gallery. 

When their only daughter Joey (a miscast and over the top Katherine Houghton) surprises her parents with the news that she is to marry African American doctor John Wade Prentice (Sidney Poitier), Joey is surprised by how her supposedly liberal parents are taken back by the news, (Hepburn’s reaction is priceless, and Tracy’s is even better). Even their black maid Tillie (Isabel Sanford) disapproves of the marriage, since she believes Dr. Prentice is a conman out for Joey’s money.

While the annoyingly bubbly and arrogantly naïve Joey does not understand why her parents – who raised her not to judge people by the colour of their skin or their beliefs – are hesitant in granting their blessing, Dr. Prentice understands where they are coming from: interracial marriage in those days carried with it dangerous and even deadly consequences.

To make matters worse, the ultimate plot device in the form of an ultimatum is given to the Drayton’s by Dr. Prentice: they must give their decision by 10 o’clock that night before he and Joey fly to Geneva where they will live for the next 3 months. Of course it never crossed anyone’s mind that a decision on their marriage could be made after that 3 months is up, and does it not strike as odd that two seemingly rational people would not want to at least know each other more than 10 days before getting hitched?

Christina supports her daughter’s decision, yet Matt – to everyone’s surprise – does not. His stance is hardened even further when he meets Dr. Prentice’s father (Roy Glenn), who also opposes the marriage and drives home the films message that it is and always have been old men who halt progress.

Hell, even the most Irish Catholic of Irish Catholic priest’s in the form of Cecil Kellaway’s Monsignor Ryan – a dear friend to the irreligious family – cannot persuade Matt otherwise with his pearls of wisdom. (Truth be told, it was a shock to find a pro-Liberal Hollywood which did not resort to anti-Catholicism. Must have been the JFK factor at the time).      

At this point is when the film begins to live up to its potential as an emotionally packed look at race relations, thanks to some powerfully written dialogue by William Rose (which culminates in a sterling speech by Tracy that closes the film) and incredible performances by its three leads. In fact, both of these factors were what have kept the film afloat over the last 4 decades.    

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner marks the ninth –and final -collaboration between Hepburn and Tracy, who would pass away shortly after completing this film. His last performance proved to be an equally touching and highly energetic one, and Hepburn counters with an equally powerful and emotionally deep turn.

Yet the unsung hero here is Sidney Poitier, who provides grace, humour, and passion in spades. It would be a career defining year for Poitier, who also excelled in the much more powerful statement on American racism, In the Heat of the Night.

As a film for its time, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner is a strong indictment on racism in America. Yet 40 years on, it fails to get the blood running and the brain stirring. There is something counter productive in watching a group of rich people complain about the hardships of the world whilst living in a mansion with a million dollar view.

Take the same story to the grit of the streets where real oppression – race, class, and religious - lives and breathes, and a much gutsier and realistic film on these issues will be apparent. As it stands, this is an entertaining yet fantastical opinion piece which Hollywood adored as it scored numerous Oscars.