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Beyond the Bounds of Criticism: Preserving Spencer Tracy as a Liberal Hero

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Lasting Screen Stars

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Abstract

In this chapter Graves looks at the impact of independent producer-director Stanley Kramer on Spencer Tracy’s latter-day stardom. While Tracy is remembered for his romantic comedies with Katharine Hepburn, Graves examines Tracy’s dramatic career and the role Kramer played in extending Tracy’s image as an on-screen liberal hero. While providing an overview of their collaborations, the chapter focuses on the critical backlash Kramer received for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), Tracy’s final, and posthumously released, film, widely received as a paternalistic treatment of race relations. Graves considers how Tracy’s stardom was able to withstand his association with the film by considering the role contemporary critics played in preserving Tracy’s image as a liberal hero.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cripps (1993) outlines the emergence and characteristics of ‘message movies’.

  2. 2.

    Spencer and Louise Tracy, married in 1921, never divorced, because of their Catholicism. Tracy had affairs with other women, but he was with Hepburn from 1941 to his death in 1967. A 1962 Look article revealed to the public Tracy’s battle with alcoholism and strained marriage. See Curtis (2012, pp. 800–803) for the article’s effect.

  3. 3.

    Cripps (1993) details the production and widespread praise of Home of the Brave as a landmark film, although it was criticised by segments of the political left (pp. 221–226).

  4. 4.

    Kramer was accused of overly aggressive publicity campaigns by Goodman (1961, pp. 147–149, pp. 189–190) and Kael (1970, pp. 203–214).

  5. 5.

    See Curtis (2012), p. 756.

  6. 6.

    For a discussion of Louise Tracy’s work for the John Tracy Clinic, see Mahon (2012). For Hepburn’s political activism, see Edwards (1986, pp. 226–227, 236–237). Although Tracy was private in his politics, biographers have noted Tracy’s admiration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, see Curtis (2012, p. 407).

  7. 7.

    As in, See Curtis (2012) on Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’s development (pp. 830–842).

  8. 8.

    See Promotion Screening Manual for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, undated, 7 pp., box 82, ‘Robert Ferguson’ folder, Stanley Kramer Papers, UCLA: 2–3.

  9. 9.

    Adler (1968), Hunt (1968), and Terry (1968) all critiqued Poitier’s typecasting. Harris (2008) outlines the criticism Poitier’s image faced across 1967.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Hannah Graves

Authors
  1. Hannah Graves
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Languages, Linguistics and Fil, Queen Mary University of London, LONDON, United Kingdom

    Lucy Bolton

  2. Queen Mary University of London, School of Languages, Linguistics & Film, United Kingdom

    Julie Lobalzo Wright

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© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

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Graves, H. (2016). Beyond the Bounds of Criticism: Preserving Spencer Tracy as a Liberal Hero. In: Bolton, L., Wright, J. (eds) Lasting Screen Stars. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40733-7_13

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