Spencer Tracy Kramer's "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967), Tracy's ninth and final film with Hepburn. "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" explored the topic of interracial marriage, with Tracy playing a liberal-minded newspaper publisher whose values are challenged when his daughter wishes to marry a black man, played by Sidney Poitier. Tracy was happy to be working again, but he told the press the movie would be his last. To commence filming, Tracy had to be insured for the high premium of $71,000; Hepburn and Kramer both put their salaries in escrow until Tracy completed his scenes. In poor health, Tracy could
Spencer Tracy screens for almost a year before returning to 20th Century Fox on loan and appearing as Henry M. Stanley in "Stanley and Livingstone", his only screen appearance of 1939. Curtis maintains that Tracy's non-visibility did little to affect his standing with the public or exhibitors. In October of that year, a "Fortune" magazine survey to find the nation's favorite movie actor listed Tracy in first place. MGM capitalized on Tracy's popularity, casting him in four movies for 1940. "I Take This Woman" with Hedy Lamarr was a critical and commercial failure, but the historical drama "Northwest Passage"—Tracy's first film in