Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Loved this movie!!

23-year-old Joanna (Katharine Houghton) comes home from her trip to Hawaii, busting with news - She's in love with someone she met on her trip: Dr. John Wade Prentice (Sidney Poitier).


So what's the problem?

1) she's white

2) he's black

3) its 1967

Joanna is happy as can be, but John is a little nervous about how her family will react. And...they are very surprised.

He's also worried about HIS family will react.

Joanna's parents (Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn) have brought her up to not look at race, and to be independent and open minded. One of the best lines is when Hepburn is telling her husband that they raised Joanna to not judge people by the color of their skin she says (paraphrased), "when we raised her to know that whites weren't better than anyone else, we never once added 'but don't marry a colored man'...".

Surprisingly, the housekeeper, Tillie (played by Isabel Sanford) is pretty upset. She's a black woman, and she tells Joanna that she does not like this one bit. She says she does not like him because she does not like someone of her own race trying to get "above his place".

When John calls his parents to tell them he's in love, they are overjoyed. (he is a widower). However, he does not tell them all about Joanna. But she ends up grabbing the phone and invites them to dinner.

The entirely of the movie takes place on this one day. The news is shared, the couple wants their parents' blessings, but everyone is reeling from the surprise of it all. But the couple tells their parents that they have only this night to decide how they feel about it, because their flight to Belguim leaves at 10:45pm, and then they'll be leaving to get married.

There were so many great lines in this movie, I almost grabbed a notebook to write them all down. This movie would be a GREAT conversation starter about how society has changed, or appeared to have changed, or not changed at all.

I totally recommend this movie!