Spencer Tracy was so ill no company would insure the movie for costs to do any refilming if he wasn't able to finish the movie. They believed so much in making this movie that Stanley Kramer (the producer and director) Katherine Hepburn, and Sidney Poitier put their salaries in escrow to cover the missing insurance. Spencer Tracy died 17 days after filming was completed. Although not married to each other due to complicated circumstances, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn were together as a couple for 26 years until his death.

Isabel Sanford, who played Tillie, was a struggling, middle-aged actor who jumped at the chance to be in the film and make such "big money". As she was struggling financially, she had to take the bus to the studio to do the film. The word got out among the cast and crew, and Katherine Hepburn was flabbergasted. She demanded that Spencer Tracy and the producers do something about it. Sanford no longer had to take the bus. The studio paid for all her taxi fares to and from the studio. 👍👍

Katherine Hepburn was very teary eyed in this film due to the fact that Spencer Tracy was very sick while making this film. In fact, this WAS his last film. He died not too long after.

Another brilliant Sidney Poitier film is "In The Heat of The Night" (1967). Poitier plays a Philadelphia detective who investigates a murder in Mississippi, where everyone is hostile to him. It won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Amazing year (1967) for Sidney Poitier. He starred in this important film, as well as in the very popular "To Sir, With Love," and finally in the year's Best Picture Oscar-winner, the great southern crime thriller and social drama "In the Heat of the Night."

The next Sidney movie you should watch is In the Heat of the Night. One of the most iconic phrases ever uttered in any movie comes from this film and is delivered by Mr Poitier with such drama that it was voted by the AFI into the top 20 most quotable passages. Encapsulating the entire Civil Rights Movement in 5 words, amazing!

I have seen this movie 100 times and I still cry every time Spencer Tracey goes into his final monologue. Not only is it great in the framing of the movie, but it's obvious that the love he's speaking of is coming from his heart as he looks at Katherine Hepburn. Knowing their long, complicated love story in real life makes that scene even more poignant. 💔 Such a great movie with an ideal cast!!

The actress playing the daughter was Katherine Hepburn’s real-life niece. Although her name was Katherine Grant, she used “Katherine Houghton” when acting; Houghton was Hepburn mother’s maiden name, and the family is known for its political activities and for founding Corning Glass.

Thank you so much for reviewing this movie! It’s really wonderful. It’s such a great time capsule in every way - the clothes, hair, music, attitudes and generational gap of the 60s. It’s wonderfully acted. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn were magical. His final speech about the love he felt for his wife was really him, at the end of his life, talking about his love for Hepburn. And, as always, Sidney Poitier was terrific. It takes some context to understand the importance of the issue of race in this movie. When the movie was made (1967) the civil rights movement was in full swing, accompanied by all of the hateful reactionary violence. As they briefly referenced in the movie, Dr. Martin Luther King was still alive (he was shot the following year) and interracial marriage was illegal in a number of states. What Joanna and John were proposing to do was radical at the time. And so was making a movie like this.

Such a great film!! Amazing cast. Katherine Hepburn is always fabulous. The scene where she tells Hillary to hit the road is awesome! "Don't talk, Hillary. Just go." ❤❤❤

An all time classic...This one never gets old...A great cast.

Hepburn's next movie, The Lion in Winter was the great one and Potier's In The Heat of the Night was a masterpiece

I appreciate that you lean into the emotional side of almost every film! It shows how empathetic and thoughtful you are as a person. 😊 Katharine Hepburn gave an equally memorable and likable performance in _On Golden Pond_ later in her career. It's a peaceful, introspective film about family, aging, and death that I think you'd find very touching. It was highly popular in its day and won several awards, but there doesn't seem to be a single reaction video to it on KZfaq currently....

Just in case no one has mentioned it yet, the movie with Sidney Poitier and the nuns trying to build the church, is "Lillies of the Field" and happens to be my favorite film with Sidney. Great movie.

They aren't racists. In fact the parents are set in a more progressive type status. It's 1967, an interracial couple could expect a very rocky road, reaction from many communities in the US at that time would likely be harsh. They could be ostracized and isolated. Both sets of parents are very concerned that the couple really is prepared for what lies ahead. Also, the young lady seems quite immature, she may believe everything will be roses and hasn't considered the entire situation. The reactions of both sets of parents and the maid are all understandable if you consider that it's 1967, not 2023. Miscegnation laws had just recently been struck down by the Supreme Court. The School desegregation decision had only come down in 1956, and had a long way to go. The Civil Rights Act had only been passed in 1964. Racial tensions were very high during this period. The one thing in their favor is they are quite well off and can avoid living in difficult areas.

I think of Tillie's response in the context of any marginalized person who is so happy to have reached a status in life which may seem only partway, but to that person, they feel lucky to have even gotten that far. Their reaction to others is "please don't rock the boat. The waves you make may capsize my ship." Martin Luther King, Jr's Letter from a Birmingham Jail was aimed at the Tillies of that time who kept telling King he was pushing too far.

PS: Sidney was in another great movie that same year, "In The Heat Of The Night" which won the Oscar for Best Picture that year.

You are watching the most delightful and surprising films lately! This is one of my all-time favorites. Sidney Poitier is absolutely splendid in this, and Spencer Tracy and Katherine were just illustrious together as always. Loved this

Your reaction to the "Getting 'hurt' somehow" scene was 😂😂😂🤭🙄😁 We don't choose who we love, it often sneaks up and snatches hold of our hearts which knows no colour, race, religion, gender or stereotype.. it exists in the eye of the beholder ❤

I adore this movie. Katharine, Spencer and Sidney , what a cast. Excellent acting. So, so good,.

I was an extra in a film called Seperate, but Equal that starred Sidney Poirier and we had to do a shot coming out onto the street up the stairs from a subway, but there weren't actually any stairs, it was a studio set of NYC, just flat concrete and a short wall, and me, Sidney and one other fellow had to rise up like we were walking up stairs onto the street. We must have sat there for 15 minutes chatting waiting for all the crew to get the lights etc. right waiting for Action! And he was really a gentle fellow, very kind and soft-spoken. Good memory.

This movie was historical for its day. And Katherine Hepburn won the Oscar for best actress. FYI, it was Hepburn’s real life niece who played her daughter. Your reaction was heart felt. I’m a great fan of Hepburn. My friend and I left flowers at her place in Manhattan. I got a hand written note from her that I will always cherish.

I’ve loved this movie for almost fifty years. So beautiful with great performances. Absolute classic!

Some other great classics A Patch of Blue, Auntie Mame, Some Like It Hot, Born Yesterday, All About Eve... I believe you would really enjoy. Strangers on a Train, Laura, Casablanca, Best Years of Our Lives.... just such amazing films and film-making!

Strange to say, there were many who dismissed this film at the time it was released as "dated." In 1967 the civil rights movement had begun to move into a more angry, militant stance. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, with its plea for integration, understanding, and love, seemed out of step. Now it feels more moving than ever. When they come to the scene where John is asked about children and he says that Joanna expects they will all grow up to be president "with colorful administrations," I can't help but think that Barack Obama, the son of a white mother and a black father, was 4 or 5 years old when this movie was made.

I saw this for the first time a few years ago, when I was in the hospital. At 50, you'd have thought I'd have seen it sooner, given how legendary it still is. I totally fell in love with this movie.❤

This movie gives me hope for humanity. I just adore it, Kathryn Hepburn is iconic, and my favorite actor/personality since childhood, Bringing up baby is my absolute favorite of her movies, her character is absolutely precious and so funny ❤

Such a beautifully acted film. Everyone is superb. Your thoughts were so on point and your reactions so moving. Thanks for this. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend another Sidney Poitier film, “To Sir, With Love,” about an American teacher assigned to a school in the slums of London in the late 1960s.

1967 was the year Loving vs Virginia was decided, legalizing interracial marriage in the U.S.

A 10-day courtship before getting married was almost a lifetime in movies and tv at the time. It was so common that the hero and heroine would glance at each other in the opening scene, and expressing their deepest love (which at the time HAD to lead to marriage) immediately sometimes before they even knew each other's name. Okay, I over-exaggerate and at times it does happen in real life, but it was such an overused trope at the time.

Great reaction. 1967 was a good year for Sidney Poitier. If you liked To Sir with Love and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, both made in that year, you should react to Mr. Poitier's third movie in 1967, In the Heat of the Night. By the way, his movie with the nuns was The Lilies of the Field. For that movie he won an academy award, the first time a man of color won it.

I recorded this film from TCM over twenty years ago. I watched it a couple of times and loved it, but I kept the recording around solely for the part where the two teenagers dance out of the house. Gold.

Such a moving story, such stunning performances by all! Thanks for reacting!

This is such an important film. So simply filmed, but beautiful scripting and character development. I’m going to watch this with my 12-yo daughter tonight. She needs to see it, and thank you for reminding me.

One of my faves!!! Spencer and Sidney most definitely hit it out of the park

Wow, this was another one of your extra special reactions. Thank you Scott! Everything you were saying....right down to pointing out the fashions and what you liked about them! (I agree, by the way!) It's interesting; I saw this movie when I was a kid....and I just took it for granted. And it wasn't until people started doing reactions for it that I realized how well it holds up. In fact, it may be better NOW than it was even then. It got a little flak at the time, or soon after, but it's almost like "12 Angry Men": it's very of it's moment.....and yet completely relevant to today. Towards the second half of the movie, you gave up even trying to do commentary! Ha! You were so caught up in the movie, you did not dare speak! :D Wonderful.

Katharine Houghton, who plays the bride-to-be, is Katharine Hepburn's niece.

Little known trivia , Barbara Randolph briefly seen in a scene with Isabel Randolph was the adopted daughter of Lillian Randolph who occasionally appeared in the old TV show Amos N Andy . Roy Glenn was portrayed Poitier's father also appeared occasionally with Lillian on the A N A TV show . Barbara Randolph herself was briefly considered around the time this movie was released as a replacement for Florence Ballard in the singing trio The Supremes . Moreover as a young girl Barbara Randolph had appeared in the movie Bright Road with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte as the ill fated student . Thus she had the distinction to have appeared supporting parts in separate movies starring Poitier and Belafonte . Not too many actresses can claim that .

I recall seeing my first interracial couple in 1967-- walking hand in hand on a sidewalk. I was sitting in the passenger side of the car my father was driving. He told me to look away. And he meant it. I'll never forget that revelation about him, I was so disappointed. #thingsyouneverforget

I barely recognized Isabel Sanford.

Yes! "Lilies Of The Field" - black-and-white masterpiece! One of my favorite movies!

I love this film. One of my favorites. It was Spencer Tracy's last movie. He was ill when he filmed it.

Spencer Tracy is one of only two actors to win two Academy Awards for Best Actor in consecutive years. He won for *Captains Courageous* (1937), based on Rudyard Kipling's classic novel, and for *Boys Town* (1938), in which Tracey plays Father Flanagan, the real-life founder of a home for unwanted children in Omaha, NE. An equally remarkable performance is given by Tracy in *Inherit the Wind* (1960), about the Scopes "Monkey" trial. None of these films have had reactions, to the best of my knowledge.

Your thoughts on marriage are lovely. I wish more people thought this way.

Lilies of the Field is the one with the nuns! I absolutely adore that movie--it's my favorite Sidney Poitier movie.

Sidney was such a dignified actor, this film was so well cast and scripted ,Oscar winner IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is another great movie with him and Rod Stieger, Lilies of the Field was the film with the nuns and won many awards .

Sidney Poitier a gentleman and a great actor, just as important as this movie you should try ' The defiant ones '( 1958 ) it's a classic

One of my favourite movies of all time! Not just about racism but also sexism and age-ism. ❤

Checking up on the background of one's child's potential spouse for negative things is one thing. To check up on their achievements is different. I see this as so obvious a way to help win over the audience's acceptance. John's character was an overachiever par excellence, as perfect as they could make him without him being able to leap over tall buildings and faster than a speeding locomotive. From our viewpoint today, I want to ask just what income level is necessary to overcome prejudice.

My mom loved Sidney Poitier so i saw this movie growing up, as well as Lilies of the Field

I remember going to the drive-in movie with my parents to see this movie, I was only 11 but it had a big impact on me. I actually just re-watched it over the weekend, it’s one of my very favorite movies.

_Lilies of the Field_ is the one with the nuns.

When my parents and I moved from Europe to the US in 1963, we drove from New York to North Carolina down I-95 and stopped for breakfast at a diner along the highway. Just outside was a huge billboard that said Welcome to KKK Country. I asked my brown father what the sign meant. He looked over at my blonde blue eyed mother and said, "I reckon we'll find out."

It's interesting to hear your interpretation, coming from another culture outside the US (Anambra State, Nigeria via Canada?), of this groundbreaking movie. For the last 300 years all of us here have lived with the stink of racism, of memories of slavery. When Tillie told him he was wrong to try and transcend his "position", his secondary class human position, and his father told him he had no hope for any change, they were describing the actual end of slavery, the Uncle Tom-Jim Crow era. Before blacks were allowed to vote here. There is racism inbred in us all. Our instincts tell us to shun those species that are different and to protect our source of food, our territory. Both their parents had an equal ammount of racism, just a different form. This movie meant to a lot of people that the secret to change was merely a matter of reflection, empathy & choice. Great choice of movie.

This movie was one of the first to address inter racial marriage. It tried to show th people of the day that race should not affect love. Great movie. I was 20 yrs old and loved it , I'm a white 75 yr old woman and related to the society of the time.

Katharine Houghton, who played Joey, is Katharine Hepburn's niece. She must have been named after her aunt.

One of my most favorite films that I keep close at hand, if I need inspiration.

clarification: Tilly's (the Black aid) probably has a very low education level for that era. Obviously she doesn't interact with Doctors. And she loves the girl so she is just being protective.

Next up A Patch of Blue, To Sir With Love and In the Heat of the Night. Never enough Sidney Poitier.

I was born around the time this movie was made. My generation (X) hilariously thought that this was a silly old antique. We had moved on from all this, you know. If nothing else, the Loving v. Virginia case had decided it for everyone, anyway. Now, in my 50s, I regret to suggest that everyone needs to watch the movie today. We ain't past nothing.

Sidney Portier plays a student in a film called "The Blackboard Jungle" starring Glen Ford.

Katherine Hepburn never saw this movie. Since Tracy never did, she didn't want to. Her niece played her daughter.

Your reaction to "getting hurt somehow" made me holler.

the movie your thinking of with sidney poitier building the church was lilies of the field

The film with the nuns is Lilies of the Field

Oh this is one of my childhood memory movies … we went to a drive-in to watch this

I grew up in NY during the '50's and we always prided ourselves as not being prejudice. And certainly by comparison to the South, we weren't. But looking back . . . yes, we were, even as we weren't aware of it (or tried hard to ignore it.) Often it was common to mask feelings by saying "oh, there is nothing wrong with that" (like the Seinfeld quote years later) "but think about the children. Their lives would be so unbearable because of the prejudice of others" - always the others. And to think America's first Black president was actually from a mixed marriage. Wish I could go back in time and rub THAT in people's noses. And show them movies like Hidden Figures and Glory. Sidney Poitier was able to play such a noble, almost flawless guy, which was needed for the ground-breaking roles he played during this time. But in my imaginary time-travel, I could show a version of this movie with Will Smith in the lead. He wouldn't be taking any crap from the get-go.

Lillies of the Field is the movie with the nuns. He won the Oscar.

I have always loved this movie and I live just down the street from that Mel's Drive In - yes it's still there. There's another great movie that no one seems to talk about with Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones called 'A Family Thing' (1996). I know you will also love this movie for the message it sends.

If the daughter marries him, she might be cut off from her parents. If instead, he withdraws because of the parents objections, not only would she lose him but she would never forgive her parents, she would lose everything. Thankfully I hope we have come to a point where letting one's parents override our decision on such basic matters as to whom one could love would not win.

It’s a beautiful film, Katherine & Tracey took pay at scale so the film could be made. The emotion between Tracey and Katherine was real.

I grew up in the 60’s when this movie was made. Where I lived in the USA black people were not allowed to drink out of the same fountains or sit near white people in a restaurant. This movie was very controversial for its time. Sadly many theaters wouldn’t even show it. Before 1967 interracial marriage between black and white people was still illegal in 17 states. All the people involved in making this move knew they were taking a risk. The director and the actress who played Joey both received death threats after this movie was released. It was a sad time in our history that younger people who watch this movie seem to be unaware of. Thank-you for all your wonderful reactions.

Hahaha love your comment about cooking rice! As far as I know, you're only the second reactor to watch this underappreciated classic. Yes, the Draytons (Hepburn and Tracy) thought they were liberal until Dr. Prentice walked in the door and raised their unconscious issues about race. However, they - at least Mrs. Drayton - recognized that pretty quickly. You're also right about Tillie and Mr. Prentice; I've not heard as much vitriolic behind-their-back objections to decades-long mixed marriages as I have from their alleged friends who are Black. It's a sad thing that despite superficial gains, so much has stayed the same or even worsened. Fun fact: The Mel's Drive-in of the boysenberry ice cream scene is the same Mel's used to great effect in American Grafitti, right before it was demolished. Personal note: I saw this movie in its first-run release in a beautiful movie palace that's on the verge of demolition due to owner neglect and lack of civic vision.

Oh honey, I was going to suggest you watch “Lillies of the Field” which is the movie you referred to where he was helping the nuns! One of my favorite movies and I would love to watch you react to it.

You can hardly go wrong with Sidney Poitier, but a performance of his that continues to fascinate me is his potrayal of a disabled man in George Gershwin's musical masterpiece *Porgy and Bess* (1959). The film also features remarkable performances by Sammy Davis, jr., Pearl Bailey, and Dorothy Dandridge, but unfortunately, it has been suppressed for many years by the Gershwin estate. Nevertheless, it was exhibited in New York City as recently as 2007, and copies do exist.

Oh how I love this movie. I first watched it as a child in the 70's and it still holds true. ❤️

Spencer Tracy was so brilliant in this! He was in very bad health and died about 17 days after the film was finished. The actress who played daughter Joey was Hepburn’s real life niece, Katharine Houghton, her namesake.

I've seen this film several times, and as groundbreaking as it was at the time it was released (1967), it still took the "safe" route when it came to the plot: 1) The White fiancee seems blissfully naive to the point of being unrealistic. 2) Both partners had to get their respective parents' approval to get married. 3) The Black fiance was a widower (his wife had died in a car accident).

People may think the reactions to interracial couples were exaggerated. They weren't. In 1967 at 14 at my 90% Catholic white new high school in a Northern state I went to a dance. A Black male student slow danced with a white female student. I'm Black. The next day at home all I could do was talk about it to my parents. I was so shocked. I still have not seen this movie. lol! Growing up, comedians of all races made fun of the title. A popular reggae song, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Natty dread locks."

It was such a beautifully performed movie with an amazing message!

I LOVE this film, so glad you watched it!

Another excellent Sidney Poitier film is "A Patch of Blue" (1965).

Amazing how everything that happens in the movie is one day!

Another great Poitier movie is "Buck and the Preacher" with Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee.

Unless you lived through the 1950's and '60s, it's hard to understand how even the most liberal people could be concerned about interracial marriage. In fact, at the time this was filmed, 17 states made interracial marriage illegal, though the Supreme Court ruled those laws unconstitutional just before the movie was released.

This movie this fantastic. I watched this with my mum and now you are watching this.. brilliant request!!! Lots of love and great vibes to you and your community ❤

This was a wonderful film!! Great reaction!! Did you ever see To Kill A Mockingbird? The EXCELLENT 1962 movie takes place in 1930s Alabama, & is something that should be on everyone's MUST WATCH list!!! Be sure to add it to yours!!

One of my favorite movies of all time!!!

Fun fact. Katherine Hepburn is Joanna's aunt in real life.

The movie with the nuns is lilies of the Field

Please bear in mind a few years before this film a white man and a black woman had to go north to get married but when they came back home to South Carolina they both were arrested. If I remember the (kkk) burned their house while they were locked up.

The inside joke of this movie is that the handsome . gentlemanly , scholarly character that Sidney Poitier is portraying would be considered a " great catch " for the average upper crust woman ------except for one thing .

I like your reaction, first time I watched you. You should also do "In the heat of the night", also with Sidney Poitier, and Rod Steiger, great actin great film, even more gripping than "Guess who is coming to dinner".

This film does such a wonderful job of showing the problems mixed couples had during the time. Even though racism was _beginning_ to wain, there was STILL a lot of people that considered this taboo mostly due to many in the older generation who still held onto the ignorance they were taught. Unlike today, mixed couples at the time were VERY RARE and frowned upon by BOTH sides of the spectrum. Films like this, and shows like "All in the Family" did a great job at taking jabs at racism. UNFORTUNATELY today they couldn't even get away with making a film like this for fear of _offending_ someone.

Her parents are lifelong liberals and well known in the community. He is in the newspaper business, they are well known and well to do. Their daugther bringing home a black man she wants to married in a few weeks is putting their lifelong belief to a test.

Of course, I had seen "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" two or three times before, but why is it whenever I watch a movie with you, Kemi, I always feel more emotion than ever before? I loved your reaction and all of your thoughtful comments. My father's mother was white, and his father was black. My father's parents were married in the late 1920s, and they had three children. Then my father met and married my mother, a Vietnamese woman, in 1968. I was born in 1969. This movie was made in 1967, and we definitely have made progress in the last 60 years. I mean, neither my parents' nor my grandparents' marriages would be illegal in any of the 50 states today. To think that they could have been jailed for loving each other in certain states not that long ago is kind of crazy. Well, I suppose this is true of gay marriage, too, and I am also a gay man. In fact, at one time I wanted to write a screenplay called "Guess Who's Coming Out at Dinner?", but I just never got around to it. LOL Anyway, as much progress as we have made in the last 60 years, I think this movie also serves as a reminder that we still have some work to do because bigotry and racism still exist. Perhaps it always will. Thankfully, I have never directly experienced it myself (at least to my knowledge). I have lived and am living a good life. "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" was nominated for 10 Oscars and won two: Best Actress for Katherine Hepburn and Best Writing for William Rose. As Kemi mentioned, every character had a right to feel the way they did, and I think the writing showed that. We could sympathize with both sets of parents, and the scene where John Prentice is talking to his father was just so good!! Thank you for your reaction, Kemi! I'm glad you enjoyed the movie and that you now take life by the horns and savor every moment. How wonderful it was that you and your family came to Las Vegas and we got to meet in person. You made that happen and I am glad you were not disappointed!

I’m sorry about your loss of your father’s passing 😢

Lovely reaction❤❤❤

Loved the movie and your reaction.

Lilies of the Field - I love that movie