Of all the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn movies ever made, this is the one you most need to see.
Katharine Houghton (Hepburn’s real-life niece) stars as Joanna Drayton, a young woman from a fairly well-to-do family who goes to Hawaii for a vacation. When she comes back, she has some news for her parents (Tracey and Hepburn). She met a wonderful man, got swept off her feet in a whirlwind affair, and is engaged. This is shocking news enough – it’s one thing to send your daughter on a trip, and quite another to have her come home with plans to get married. But what’s even more shocking is the fact that the man she has chosen to marry is black.
Sidney Poitier plays Dr. Prentice, a man a bit older than Joanna, who has seen the world. His age, his experience, and his race all play against him, in the Drayton’s minds. Joanna should wait a few years to get married, not go rushing into something like this.
The dialogue in this film is so well done as the parents discuss Dr. Prentice’s ambitions and dreams for the future, and why he wants to include Joanna in those dreams. Then his own parents enter the picture, with their concerns about his choice of a white wife. The issues discussed were especially prevalent at the time this movie was made, but the message is no less valid now – we will love who we will love, regardless of our differences, and we can make it work.
This was Spencer Tracy’s last film. He died seventeen days after the shooting ended, and Katharine Hepburn never saw the finished movie, saying it was too painful for her. The scenes were shot around his schedule and how he felt on that day. During the final scene, when he’s giving his last speech to Joanna, the tears Hepburn sheds are real. She knew it was his last movie and that she would never act with him again.
This is one of those “must-see” movies. See it because it’s Spencer’s last. See it because the acting is so wonderful and the story is incredible. See it because you’ll never be the same if you do.
This film was not rated.
Related Blogs:
Spencer Tracy: An Actor to Reckon With
Katharine Hepburn: the First Lady of the Cinema