Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Theatrical release poster
Directed byStanley Kramer
Written byWilliam Rose
Produced byStanley Kramer
Starring
CinematographySam Leavitt
Edited byRobert C. Jones
Music byFrank De Vol
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release dates
  • December 11, 1967 (1967-12-11) (New York City)
  • December 12, 1967 (1967-12-12) (United States)
Running time
108 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$4 million[2]
Box office$56.7 million[2]

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is a 1967 American romantic comedy drama film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, and written by William Rose. It stars Spencer Tracy (in his final role), Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Hepburn, and features Hepburn's niece Katharine Houghton.

The film was one of the few of the time to depict an interracial marriage in a positive light, as interracial marriage historically had been illegal in many states of the United States. It was still illegal in 17 states, until June 12, 1967, six months before the film was released, and scenes were filmed just before anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia.

The film was the ninth and final on-screen pairing of Tracy and Hepburn. Tracy was very ill during filming but insisted on continuing. Filming of his role was completed just 17 days before his death in June 1967.[3] Hepburn never saw the completed film, saying it would be too painful for her.[4] The film was released in December 1967, six months after Tracy's death.

In 2017, on its 50th anniversary, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[5][6] The film's Oscar-nominated score was composed by Frank De Vol.[7]

  1. ^ Craddock, Jim, ed. (2004). VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever 2005: The Complete Guide to Movies on Videocassette and DVD. Detroit: Gale. p. 355. ISBN 978-0-7876-7470-0.
  2. ^ a b "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 13, 2023.
  3. ^ "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)". IMDb. December 12, 1967. Archived from the original on June 16, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  4. ^ Andersen 1997, p. 306.
  5. ^ "2017 National Film Registry Is More Than a 'Field of Dreams'". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on December 13, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  6. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  7. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2001). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Albums 1955–2001. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research. p. 1018. ISBN 978-0-89820-147-5.