Guess Whose Coming to Dinner?

My blog post title for today is derived from this movie I saw yesterday. It was about this interracial couple played by Katharine Houghton and Sidney Poitner, who had supposedly fell in love in about 12 days in the remote location of Hawaii on. They come to Los Angelos to meet the Joanna Drayton’s Caucasian and unsuspecting parents, Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) and Christina Drayton (Katharin Hepburn). The highly respected and highly aware, Dr. John Wade Prentice, asks the parents for their blessing in marriage and if they approve, the marriage will take place. The climax finds Dr. Printice's parents, Joanna Drayton's parents meeting along with a minister, Joanna, and Dr. Prentice for dinner for the analysis of this very interesting situation.



The underlying theme in this movie is race relations and marriage. In a time period permeating with racial discrimination and segregation, interracial marriage was highly controversial and in some cases illegal. This movie approaches this scenario with class and style. The actors executed superbly and the script was intelligently written.

In the classic words of Sidney Poitier playing Dr. Prentice, "I don't see myself as a colored man, I see myself simply as a man." Could the monster of racial discrimination and prejudice really thrive in a society that adopted this mental disposition? Although, Joanna "Joey" Drayton (Katharine Houghton) was naive and oblivious to the very social implications of her impending marriage to Dr. Prentice, she saw everyone as human being and not as someone with a different skin pigmentation than her. That's the point: Impartiality. Therefore, love is the only factor that should be weight in when getting married not one’s color pigmentation.

I highly recommend that everyone and I mean everyone see this movie. It will have you laughing, crying, and pondering. BTW, this movie didn’t make me cry. Why? Because of the male syllogism on crying: Men don’t cry. I am a man. Therefore, I don’t cry.

Maybe I will write something later in my humanly existence.