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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 5 april 2017
‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ legacy debated on anniversary

MARK KENNEDY a movie like that.’ I think way. The film just captured
AP Entertainment Writer we did need a movie like a change that was starting
NEW YORK (AP) — Fif- that.” to take place.”
ty years ago, Katharine Houghton played a young Columbia Pictures wanted
Houghton found herself on white woman studying in to shut down the produc-
her first big movie set mak- Hawaii who brings home tion, arguing it couldn’t get
ing something that made an accomplished African- insurance for Tracy, who
plenty of people deeply American doctor and in- was gravely ill (he would
worried. forms her parents — played die just days after shooting
Houghton and co-star by Katharine Hepburn and wrapped). Hepburn and
Sidney Poitier were play- Spencer Tracy — that she Kramer agreed to put their
ing lovers in “Guess Who’s intends to marry him. Cha- salaries in escrow in case
Coming to Dinner,” a ro- os ensues as her liberal Tracy couldn’t finish and
mantic comedy directed parents grapple with the another actor needed to
by Stanley Kramer. Shoot- concept of interracial mar- be hired.
ing had begun in San Fran- riage. Houghton, Hepburn’s In this March 9, 2017, photo, actress and playwright Katharine
cisco when word came The film, re-released this niece, was frustrated that Houghton, who starred in the 1967 film “Guess Who’s Coming to
that the movie was can- spring in a Blu-ray edition , a scene in which she con- Dinner” with Sidney Poitier, poses for photographs in New York.
celed. served as a challenge to fronted her parents was Associated Press
It was an insurance prob- liberals, a sort of modern- cut but noted with plea- dent of the United States ‘Wow that was kind of pro-
lem, the studio explained. day fable made palatable sure another one in which and they’ll all have color- phetic.’”
The timing seemed suspi- with comedy. Most parents her character was asked ful administrations.” Years More Hollywood attempts
cious to the actors. would be supportive of what would happen to later, the biracial Barack to tackle interracial rela-
“Columbia Pictures, when their daughter’s involve- their biracial children. Obama, whose parents tionships would follow, in-
they found out what the ment with Poitier’s charac- In the film, she says they met in Hawaii, would be- cluding Spike Lee’s “Jungle
film was about, they didn’t ter — a handsome, charm- will grow up to “be presi- come president. “I thought, Fever,” q
want to do it. And they did ing, well-educated doctor
everything they could to on his way to work with the
stop filming,” recalls Hough- World Health Organization.
ton. “They kept saying, ‘No- Only his race could be a
body’s going to ever come sticking point.
and see this film. We’re go- The social backdrop was
ing to lose millions of dollars far different in 1967. While
on this film.’” the film was being shot,
The studio was wrong. The more than a dozen states
movie made more money had laws against misce-
for Columbia than any film genation. The same year
before it, earned 10 Oscar it came out, Secretary of
nominations — winning two State Dean Rusk offered
— and landed among the to resign after his daughter
100 greatest movies select- married a black man. Inter-
ed by the American Film racial romance was such
Institute. an explosive topic that
The film, with its radical- Beah Richards, who played
for-its-time interracial ro- Poitier’s mother in the film,
mance, marked the first couldn’t see it in her home-
time a white actress and a town of Vicksburg, Missis-
black actor kissed in a ma- sippi.
jor motion picture. Some Critics said it was ultimately
movie theaters in the South a cautious movie without
refused to show it. much bite. Yes, there was a
Fifty years later, some cheer kiss but Poitier and Hough-
its legacy while others look ton locked lips only once,
back and wince. Fans see captured in a rearview mir-
its effects in modern films, ror in the back of a cab.
like Jordan Peele’s new Detractors said Poitier’s
hit, “Get Out,” and in com- character was too perfect
mercials for Cheerios and — and a man who in one
Chase Bank celebrating scene seemed to imply
interracial couples. Critics he was post-race — and
think it didn’t go far enough Houghton’s character was
to confront racism. a rich and pretty girl who
Houghton sees both sides wasn’t his equal.
but views the movie as rev- “Any criticism of the film
olutionary. “I think the film was really for the left, for it
really was a kind of a thun- not being daring enough,”
derbolt,” she said. “A lot of said David Schwartz, chief
very chic critics today say, curator at the Museum of
‘Oh, “Guess Who’s Com- the Moving Image in New
ing to Dinner” was way York City. “A lot of times
behind the times. All those with Hollywood, the mov-
problems were already ies are reflecting changes
solved and we didn’t need that are happening any-