Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Spencer Tracy: Matt Drayton

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Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Matt Drayton : Now Mr. Prentice, clearly a most reasonable man, says he has no wish to offend me but wants to know if I'm some kind of a *nut*. And Mrs. Prentice says that like her husband I'm a burned-out old shell of a man who cannot even remember what it's like to love a woman the way her son loves my daughter. And strange as it seems, that's the first statement made to me all day with which I am prepared to take issue... cause I think you're wrong, you're as wrong as you can be. I admit that I hadn't considered it, hadn't even thought about it, but I know exactly how he feels about her and there is nothing, absolutely nothing that you son feels for my daughter that I didn't feel for Christina. Old- yes. Burned-out- certainly, but I can tell you the memories are still there- clear, intact, indestructible, and they'll be there if I live to be 110. Where John made his mistake I think was in attaching so much importance to what her mother and I might think... because in the final analysis it doesn't matter a damn what we think. The only thing that matters is what they feel, and how much they feel, for each other. And if it's half of what we felt- that's everything. As for you two and the problems you're going to have, they seem almost unimaginable, but you'll have no problem with me, and I think when Christina and I and your mother have some time to work on him you'll have no problem with your father, John. But you do know, I'm sure you know, what you're up against. There'll be 100 million people right here in this country who will be shocked and offended and appalled and the two of you will just have to ride that out, maybe every day for the rest of your lives. You could try to ignore those people, or you could feel sorry for them and for their prejudice and their bigotry and their blind hatred and stupid fears, but where necessary you'll just have to cling tight to each other and say "screw all those people"! Anybody could make a case, a hell of a good case, against your getting married. The arguments are so obvious that nobody has to make them. But you're two wonderful people who happened to fall in love and happened to have a pigmentation problem, and I think that now, no matter what kind of a case some bastard could make against your getting married, there would be only one thing worse, and that would be if - knowing what you two are and knowing what you two have and knowing what you two feel- you didn't get married. Well, Tillie, when the hell are we gonna get some dinner?

• Matt Drayton : What the hell is it today? Less than 12% of the people in this city are colored people. I can't even have a dish of Oregon Boosenberry without runnin' into one of them.

• Matt Drayton : Joanna, this may be the last opportunity I have to tell you to do *anything*, so I telling you, *shut up!*

• Matt Drayton : I'll be a son of a bitch.

• Matt Drayton : When I had ice cream before, I had a special kind of flavor that I liked very much but I can't remember what it was.

  Carhop : I'll bring you the list, sir.

  Matt Drayton : Oh no. You - you must know what it is.

  Carhop : Daiquiri Ice, Honeycomb Candy, Cocoa, Coconut, Jamocha Almond Fudge, Mocha Jamocha, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Cinnamon, Banana Mint...

  Matt Drayton : Must've been some other place.

• Matt Drayton : [to Monsignor Ryan]  You're a pontificating old poop!

• Matt Drayton : I asked him how he, uh, got so far. You know, he's only 37.

  Christina Drayton : Yeah.

  Matt Drayton : He said he thought he got the best breaks because everybody he met didn't want him to think they were prejudiced against him.

• [last lines] 

  Matt Drayton : Well, Tillie, when the hell are we gonna get some dinner?

• Matt Drayton : Have you given any thought to the problems your children are going to have?

  John : Yes. And they'll have some. And we'll have the children. Otherwise i don't know what you would call it, but you couldn't call it a marriage.

  Matt Drayton : Is that the way Joey feels?

  John : She feels that every single one of our children will be president of the United States and they'll all have colorful administrations. Well, you made her, Mr. Drayton. I just met her in Hawaii.

  Matt Drayton : But how do you feel about that problem?

  John : Well, frankly, I think your daughter is a bit optimistic. I'd settle for Secretary of State.

• Matt Drayton : Are you really capable of putting yourself in my position? Unless you've got some kids of your own, hidden away somewhere, that haven't shown up in the record, how could you possibly know how a father would feel in a situation like this? You don't know. I happen to believe, I happen to know, they wouldn't have a dog's chance, not in this country, not in the whole stinking world.

  Monsignor Ryan : They are this country, Matt. They'll change this stinking world.

  Matt Drayton : Yeah, sure, sure, fifty years, maybe, or a hundred years, but not in your lifetime, maybe not even in mine.