Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

[Big Magilla]

Yes, Steiger was a shoo-in, He was probably the only one who thought Tracy would win.

Hoffman was the least likely winner of that group. In fact I was mildly surprised at the time that he was nominated over Poitier in In the Heat of the Night.

The big shock amongst he nominations, though, was the best picture nomination of the dreadful Doctor Dolittle over Richard Brooks' stunning film version of In Cold Blood.

The surprise among winners was, of course, Hepburn who was generally considered the weakest of the nominees. Even she herself thought her win was a sentimental nod intended to honor both her and Tracy. Edith Evans and Faye Dunaway were the favorites.

[Reza]

Katharine Houghton, Hepburn's "niece" who plays her "daughter" in the film has long been rumored to be her illegitimate daughter.

I had no idea....never having come across this news item. Who is the rumoured father? Hughes or Tracy?

[flipp525]

As I read more about that year, it appears that Rod Steiger was something of a shoo-in going into the race, and that Beatty, Newman, and Hoffman were in a state of also-ran. This has to be considered one of the most canonic lineups in history, and it's especially startling to me that Hoffman wasn't more of a front-runner considering how his performance is perhaps the most legendary of them all. Was Tracy seen as the most likely to upset Steiger?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died only four days before the Oscar telecast that year and until the night of the ceremony, it was very much up in the air whether the Oscars would happen at all. Lots of behind-the-scenes maneuvering and discussion took place about who would and wouldn't attend. When the show finally got started that night, there was a somber mood in the audience and Bob Hope's jokes, some of them rather lame, fell upon muted applause and little laughter.

Rod Steiger openly admitted that he had expected to lose to the sentimental favorite Spencer Tracy whose final speech in the film, as we've discussed below, is the moment of the entire piece. His win, though, could not have been much of a surprise given the fact that his performance in The Pawnbroker had earned him raves and various critics awards a couple years before. But there was something about his role in In the Heat of the Night that tapped into an historical moment, which is one of the reasons he might've pulled ahead of Tracy in the end, whose own film on race was not seen as groundbreaking and/or as socially relevant.

In his acceptance speech, Steiger broke protocol for the night (at this time speeches were not the soapbox for political statements they are today) and made a rare political reference: "I would like to thank Sidney Poitier for the pleasure of his friendship, which gave me the knowledge and understanding of prejudice in order to enhance this performance. Thank you and we shall overcome."

Correct me if I'm wrong, Magilla, Damien or Tee, but I believe Dustin Hoffman was considered an also-ran that year. The Graduate was a smash hit and unexpectedly tapped into a deep post-college crowd malaise. However, Hoffman, with his odd lack of confidence and seemingly unmarketable looks, was viewed as rewarded enough with the nomination. The fact that he quickly parlayed this first nod into a steady string of some of the best roles of his career (Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, Lenny) can certainly be seen as a testament to that notion.



Edited By flipp525 on 1239074854

[Sabin]

As I read more about that year, it appears that Rod Steiger was something of a shoo-in going into the race, and that Beatty, Newman, and Hoffman were in a state of also-ran. This has to be considered one of the most canonic lineups in history, and it's especially startling to me that Hoffman wasn't more of a front-runner considering how his performance is perhaps the most legendary of them all. Was Tracy seen as the most likely to upset Steiger?

[Big Magilla]

Tracy's last speech, made when he and everyone connected with the film knew he was dying, and the look in Hepburn's eyes as he was making it struck a chord with contemporary audiences, but Poitier's "you see yourself as a black man, I see myself as a man" speech to his father also resonated strongly with the same audiences.

[OscarGuy]

I don't know why I had it in my head that it was based on a stage play. Perhaps the overall feel of the film gave it a very stage-to-screen kind of quality.

And really, I wasn't asking about its reception in general, but was curious how it played to an audience who had so recently lost the star of the film. Did they see the same fatality in his final speech that I felt or was there some other feeling associated with the pic?

[Big Magilla]

A highly anticipated film at the time and a major box office hit, Poitier's third that year behind To Sir, With Love as well as In the Heat of the Night.

I believe Kramer, Hepburn and Tracy all waived their salaries in order to get the film financed. It couldn't be insured because of Tracy's failing health. He died two weeks after completing the film.

Katharine Houghton, Hepburn's "niece" who plays her "daughter" in the film has long been rumored to be her illegitimate daughter.

[flipp525]

Spencer Tracy was very ill during the making of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Stanley Kramer, if I recall correctly, made all sorts of special allowances in order to film around Tracy. Hepburn, who hadn't worked in awhile, was his caretaker, ushering him to and from the stuidio. She scheduled her own filming around his health and also used her salary as financial backing for the film. Evidently, Tracy was also quite nasty to her on and off the set, yet she maintained her resolute New England stamina and matched every one of his blows with a softening of his temper that only she could affect.

And since getting Tracy and Katherine Hepburn together was such a major coup (alongside the added cache of having landed Sidney Poitier, who had become a huge star and was also headlining In the Heat of the Night which this film would compete against at Academy Award time) the film was, by all accounts, a successful venture. Holding its own against more exciting, subversive material that year, it gave the old guard something to fall back on, a picture that wouldn't alienate the audience and might even make them feel good in rooting for an interracial marriage, even if it was against their own better judgement (one can very much make a "magical Negro" argument here about Poitier).

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner represented the old Hollywood in the Best Picture lineup of 1968. Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate, both the products of a disaffected youth movement and a more risk-taking set of filmmakers, writers, directors and producers (Mike Nichols, Warren Beatty, etc.) were heralded as dazzling clarion calls of a New Hollywood aesthetic. However, the spectacle of seeing Hepburn and Tracy together one last time coupled with the outward appearance of a socially relevant topic (no matter how ham-handed and sugary the issue was dealt with in-film), propelled Guess Who's Coming to Dinner to a sort of success against all odds. And even when the reviews for it bordered on dismal, Tracy's closing monologue always ilicited a lot of kudos.

In the Heat of the Night was sort of the compromise choice. It fell back on several stereotypes and presented Poitier as yet another character-less, fault-less black man. Yet it also shocked audiences and was extremely well-edited (thanks to Hal Ashby who was high the entire time he edited it). Moviegoers were stunned when Poitier's character, Detective Virgil Tibbs, slapped a white man back in the face after he himself had been slapped.

The less said about the huge, bloated failure of Doctor Dolittle, which rounded out this lineup, the better. From all accounts, Rex Harrison made everyone who was involved in the making of that film's life a living hell.

As FilmFan720 has confirmed, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was an original screenplay.



Edited By flipp525 on 1239046696

[FilmFan720]

It wasn't. It was an original screenplay, although there has been talk of creating a stage play of it.

[ITALIANO]

something very difficult for stage-to-screen adaptations to bypass.

I don't think that it's based on a play.

[OscarGuy]

The performances were quite good, though it feels quite a bit stage bound, something very difficult for stage-to-screen adaptations to bypass.

Now, I don't know how it played back in 1967, but as I watched Spencer Tracy's final speech, I was struck by a bit of sorrow at the fact that this was his last film. It added a bit of subtext to his speech that really seemed to speak volumes.