I rented this a couple of nights ago after reading a New York Press review for its remake, the Ashton Kutcher/Bernie Mac comedy, Guess Who?.

It was GREAT. I'm not sure why it was in the comedy section, because it seemed like a drama to me, but what a movie. I also take umbrage the reviewer's assertion that switching the races of the father and boyfriend was necessary because the union in the original would not raise any eyebrows today. Obviously, this critic has never left his insular Manhattan habitat, because I'm sure there are MANY people who would have the problems that Spencer Tracy had in the original (and keep in mind that Tracy's character was liberal, in that he ultimately gave his blessing for the marriage).

So has anyone seen Guess Who? Anyone who's seen both? I haven't seen the remake, but I'd be interested to see the comparisons. Somehow, from the commercials, though, I wouldn't expect the new version to have the dramatic depth of the 1967 film.

I think switching the races was necessary because while many white fathers would have a problem with their daughters marrying a black man most wouldn't be seen as the sympathedic father at the end of the movie.

Remember that scene in Lethal Weapon 4 when Danny Glover finds out his daughter is pregnant but he doesn't know who the father is? he says please let him be black." Could you imagine the white hero of a movie like that saying "please let him be white" after finding out his daughter is pregnant and still being the hero of the movie.

As a matter of fact, yes, I could imagine it, simply becuase that attitude is far more common on the part of white people than some would care to admit. Hell, once I had a conversation about marriage with my (now-late) aunt, who said, "Well, as long as you marry an Italian girl, Luigi.." I responded that it didn't matter, since I'm not a bigot, and another family member at the table, (My mom, I think), said that this aunt probably wasn't even familiar with that word.

Switching the races might've been necessary if the film were set in NY or California, but if it was set in say, the South, or among an Italian-American family living in NY or NJ, it could've been kept as is.

I'm sorry, Luigi, but you yourself pointed out the difference when you qualified your statement with "than some would care to admit." Most people would want their neighbors to believe that they are better than the actually are. They'll "let their hair down" in front of family, and like-minded friends, but not "in public."

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Also wanting your hypothetical future in-laws to have the same cultural background often has more to do with the comfort of the familiar than true bigotry. The neighborhood my father grew up in (and later raised his own family) was mixed Irish and Polish, the next two neighborhoods were "Dutch" (German) and Italian, respectively.

My grandfather was half German, and my grandmother's brothers did not like her dating him. My father's cousin was the first in the family to marry a Polish man and it was almost a scandal. But I grew up with as many Polish uncles and aunts as Irish ones. Despite that, there were concerns when my sister started dating a man who was half Polish and half Italian. They have been happily married for more than 30 years.

The fears (if fears they are) have mellowed. Some of my younger cousins have married Hispanics with no repercussions an one is dating a Black girl.

My point being that to whatever respect "bigotry" was involved, it was not a major issue and everyone got over it.

Luigi, I'm not asking if you think that kind of attitude is still around here in the states. I'm asking if you think that Hollywood would depict someone like that as the likeable hero of a movie these days?

While hollywood's main products are hardly always PC in every way (they still use plenty of negative sterieotypes) some parts of political correctness have stuck in Hollywood. When was the last time you saw an archy bunker type character who was anything other than the villan? If a movie like that came out today (whith a loveable white father who doesn't like his daughter's new Black BF) I'm sure that they would get blasted all over the media as racist for releasing a movie like that.

Tom, I'm not sure what your getting at with regards to my "qualifier." Please clarify.

Brian, it is possible to portray someone as the "likeable hero," if it's a balanced and fair portrayal, IMHO. If they could do it with San Franciscan Spencer Tracy, why not?

I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm saying that Hollywood would not do it today in a bland middle-of-the-road commedy like this one. You certanly can add racist undertones (and even overtones) into the heros of edgier fair (like several of Quinten Tarintino's flicks)

There is a big difference between a woman's "people" giving a couple a hard time because the man is not all they inisioned for her, and lynching a black man for whistling at a white woman, something which was still common only a few years before this movie was made. Tracy's and Hepburn's characters were portrayed as liberal, and their discomfort as the kind of discomfort my family felt in the examples I proposed, but there was still the strong hint of an undercurrent that they were not as far removed from the KKK as they believed they were.

The original movie was a drama, and its purpose was to expose the underbelly of this "accepting" family. The new movie is a comedy, and tranforms a likeable man with a blind spot and allows him to accept someone so different as family.

There is a big limit how far Hollywood would go in producing the movie that you imply "Guess Who?" could have been. That limit is "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."

Please don't mention the atrocious My Big Fat Greek Wedding on the same web page with this classic film. (But, I just did, didn't I?)
Katharine Houghton, who played the daughter of Tracy and Hepburn here, is in real life Katharine Hepburn's niece.
Spencer Tracy was considered uninsurable, due to his advanced age. Katharine Hepburn put up her salary so the film could get made. Tracy died less than three weeks after shooting wrapped.
There was a pilot for a sitcom, based on this movie, made in 1975. (It obviously didn't sell.) Stanley Kramer, who directed this film, also directed that pilot. It's so obscure (probably totally forgottten) that there is no listing for it at IMDB.

Oops. My bad. There is a listing at IMDB. But, it wasn't linked to this movie.