The MoFo Top 100 of the 60s: Countdown

Yeah, there's no body mutilation in it

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Stanley Kramer, 1967)

I might as well start with the most controversial and the most interesting film. I've seen this film many times, and although I always have a positive opinion of it, I can see why others may have more problems with it. In fact, I can see how the subject matter would almost cry out for cynics to lambaste it and declare it as phony a liberal, "feel good" movie as there ever was. Before I get too far into that, let's summarize the plot for the uninitiated. Joey (Katharine Houghton), the 23-year-old daughter of liberal San Francisco newspaper publisher Matt (Spencer Tracy) and his art store owner wife Christina (Katahrine Hepburn, Houghton's aunt) returns home with a world-renowned doctor named John (Sidney Poitier) and announces that they're in love and want to get married ASAP with her parents' unconditional blessing. John has to leave that night to fly off across the Atlantic, so there isn't much time to think about this surprising occurrence. Oh yeah, John is black and he wants to marry a white woman.

Even though Christina and John's mother (Beah Richards) provide the emotional core of the film, the film's drama derives from the relationship between Matt and John, especially when John says that he won't go through with the marriage without Matt's blessing, and Matt believes that the difficulties for an interracial couple will not only tear them apart but destroy the lives of their future children. The movie does try to cram a lot into its story, and it's really only a half serious film. Many of the situations are treated as comedy, so in hindsight, it seems that what appeals to seemingly-liberal white folks could be construed as somehow racist, even when the white family's black cook (Isabel Sanford) tries to protect the girl she raised (Joey) from some uppity... shall we say, handsome and famous doctor-researcher. So much for the plot. Let's see what I can muster about the meaning after a word from our next photo op.

(1967's Best Picture Nominees)
Compared to groundbreaking films released in 1967 (The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner does seem staid and safe in many ways. It's essentially all filmed on a set with fake backdrops and isn't very cinematic. However, it does have a superlative cast, and they are all given plenty to do. Spencer Tracy, who died two weeks after filming was completed, is especially strong, not only in his comedy, but in his powerful words at the movie's climax. For any scenes which may appear patronizing, there are probably two which appear heartfelt, honest and surprisingly moving. For every dated, hokey affectation, there is something which actually makes one laugh out loud at the human comedy. In fact, watching it last weekend, it definitely reminded me that things do change, often for the better, and even if there has never been a good reason to be racist, there may indeed be less racists alive now than ever before (although I might want to use percentages, since there has never been so many humans alive in history). In fact, somehow the film seemed more pertinent than ever after America's Presidential election a week ago today. Normally, I smile at the movie and tear up a couple of times. On Saturday, I must have teared up a half a dozen times, and all for what's basically a romantic comedy with some airs of social commentary.

What is it with these movie titles that keep asking questions.

I hope another Ozu film also makes the list. I had all three of his 60s films on mine.