Tea and Sympathy (1956)

Leif Erickson: Bill Reynolds

Photos 

Quotes 

• Bill Reynolds : When I was a kid here in this school, I had my problems too. I used to sit in my room and listen to phonograph records hour after hour. I had a place where I used to go and cry my eyes out.

  Laura Reynolds : Oh, Bill.

  Bill Reynolds : But I've got over it, Laura. I learned how to take it. Now when the headmaster's wife gave you that silver teapot, she told you just what she tells all of the other master's wives that you've got to be an interested bystander.

  Laura Reynolds : Yes, yes, I know.

  Bill Reynolds : And just as she says, Laura. All you're supposed to do is once in a while give the boys a little tea...

  Laura Reynolds : Tea and sympathy.

  Bill Reynolds : [laughs]  You remember that?

  Laura Reynolds : Yes, I remember.

• Bill Reynolds : Wait a minute, fellas. This school doesn't make anybody do anything he doesn't want to. But if he prefers the company of women, that's his business.

• Bill Reynolds : He got himself a little nickname: "Sister Boy".

  Laura Reynolds : I hope you set them straight!

  Bill Reynolds : What was there to set them straight about?

• Bill Reynolds : He is an off-horse, Herb.

  Herb Lee : He's going to have to learn to run with the other horses.

• Laura Reynolds : You'll be back for the bonfire pajama fight?

  Bill Reynolds : I wouldn't miss it.

• Bill Reynolds : Herb, he's a strange kid. He keeps to himself. He's different from the rest of them, and naturally, they just resent it. Well, this whole thing came to a head because last Wednesday he was supposed to go swimming with the varsity club. Instead, he went down to the beach with some faculty wives. Some of the boys came upon him, and there he was, sitting with them - sewing.

• Bill Reynolds : This boy would rather sit around here with you and listen to music and read poetry and strum his guitar than go out with the fellows.

  Laura Reynolds : But, Bill, he's never had a home. This is the closest thing he's ever had to a home. And he sees in this house and in me...

  Bill Reynolds : What?

• Bill Reynolds : Look, Laura, stay out of these things. I told you when I brought you here a year ago that this was going to be an awfully tough place for a woman with a heart like yours. I told you that you'd run into boys, big and little. They'd all have problems, problems which for the moment would seem gigantic and heartbreaking.

• Bill Reynolds : I married you because you were kind and gentle and womanly and understanding.

• Bill Reynolds : You've been talking about manliness. What do you know about a man? You were married first to that boy, again, a poor, pitiable boy. You want to mother a boy, not love a man.