Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
(Stanley Kramer, US 1967, 108 min., 35mm)
Director Stanley Kramer’s multiple award-winning drama explores liberal beliefs by confronting them with a real-life situation. Among the socially prominent citizens of San Francisco are Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy), the publisher of a liberal newspaper, and his wife, Christina (Katharine Hepburn), the owner of a fashionable art gallery. One day their daughter, Joey (Katharine Houghton), returns from a vacation in Hawaii with John Prentice (Sidney Poitier), a black physician whom she has known for only ten days but intends to marry. Because John must leave the next day for Switzerland on behalf of the World Health Organization, Joey wants their wedding take place immediately but only with her parents’ permission. Matt and Christina confront their consciences—while also dealing with a string of acquaintances that have their own opinions—as they decide their daughter’s fate. Nominated for Best Picture and nine other Oscars, the film earned awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress (Hepburn’s second of four awards).