The LuLac Edition #3676, December 23rd, 2017

“TO SIR” AND “GUESS WHO'S” @ 50

(Photos: moviesposters4all)

It has been fifty years since two significant movies made the rounds. Sidney Poitier was the driving force in two of them. At that time, it was rare for African American actors to get any type of billing in films. But Poitier had skills and style that gave him the opportunity to star in some socially ground breaking films. Here are two of them.
To Sir, with Love is a 1967 British drama film that deals with social and racial issues in an inner city school. It stars Sidney Poitier and features Christian Roberts, Judy Geeson, Suzy Kendall and singer Lulu making her film debut. James Clavell (who had written The Children's Story three years prior) directed from his own screenplay, which was based on E. R. Braithwaite's 1959 autobiographical novel of the same name.
The film's title song "To Sir With Love", sung by Lulu, reached number one on the U.S. pop charts for five weeks in the autumn of 1967 and ultimately was Billboard magazine's No. 1 pop single for that year. The movie ranked number 27 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.
A made-for-television sequel, To Sir, with Love II (1996), was released nearly three decades later, with Poitier reprising his starring role.
The movie came out when Poitier was one of the hottest stars in the industry. That same year he starred in this iconic and ground breaking film, “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is a 1967 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, and written by William Rose. It stars Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Hepburn, and features Hepburn's niece Katharine Houghton. The film was one of the few films of the time to depict an interracial marriage in a positive light, as interracial marriage historically had been illegal in most states of the United States, and still was illegal in 17 states—mostly Southern states—until 12 June 1967, six months before the film was released, roughly two weeks after Tracy filmed his final scene (and two days after his death), when anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia. The film's Oscar-nominated score was composed by Frank De Vol.
The film is notable for being the ninth and final on-screen pairing of Tracy and Hepburn, with filming ending just 17 days before Tracy's death. Hepburn never saw the completed film, saying the memories of Tracy were too painful. The film was released in December 1967, six months after his death.
In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".