Tea and Sympathy (1956)

John Kerr: Tom Robinson Lee

Photos 

Quotes 

• Tom Lee : I'm always falling in love with the wrong people.

  Laura Reynolds : Who isn't?

  Tom Lee : You too?

  Laura Reynolds : Well, it wouldn't be any fun if we didn't. Of course, nothing ever comes of it, but there are bittersweet memories, and they can be pleasant.

• Tom Lee : She was just out of college. Tall, blond, honey-colored hair, and she wore a polo coat and drove a convertible.

  Laura Reynolds : Oh, sounds very fetching.

  Tom Lee : Yeah, ever since then, I've been a sucker for girls in polo coats.

  Laura Reynolds : I think I have one.

  Tom Lee : Yes, I know.

• Tom Lee : All I remember about my mother is she was always telling me to go outside and bounce a ball.

• Tom Lee : My dad's going to hit the roof when he hears I'm playing a girl.

  Laura Reynolds : I think you're a good sport not to mind.

  Tom Lee : He's always after me to join up clubs and things and the dramatic club would only take me if I'd play this part.

  Laura Reynolds : Well, it's a good part: Lady Teazle in "The School for Scandal."

• Tom Lee : [singing]  The joys of love are but a moment long, The grief of love endures forever more...

• Tom Lee : You must have gotten lots of flowers when you were acting in the theater.

  Laura Reynolds : Oh, now and then. Nothing spectacular. Anyway, I was never any great shakes at it.

  Tom Lee : Oh, I can't believe that.

  Laura Reynolds : Oh, then you take my word for it.

• Tom Lee : I used to have a garden when I was a kid. Of course, my dad wasn't so keen on the idea.

• Tom Lee : Thanks for the tea.

  Laura Reynolds : Oh, you're welcome.

• Laura Reynolds : Come on, put your arms around me.

  Tom Lee : We'd better put it off. We look kind of silly, both of us in skirts.

  Laura Reynolds : All right then. You take it off.

• Mary Williams : Can you cook?

  Tom Lee : Sure.

  Mary Williams : You'll make some girl a good wife.

• Tom Lee : I keep telling you guys, I don't want a bunch of Peeping Toms mussing up my room all the time. Hey, Al, do we have to have these Peeping Toms hanging out of my window every afternoon?

• Al : Why don't you do something about it?

  Tom Lee : Well, what can I do?

  Al : Well, gee, you could - you - I don't know?

• Laura Reynolds : Can't I persuade you to stay? We were getting on so well.

  Tom Lee : Thanks.

  Laura Reynolds : In another moment I'd have told you all the deep, dark secrets of my life.

• Al : Look, Tom, do you mind if I try to help you?

  Tom Lee : Gee, no. How?

  Al : Now, I know this is going to burn your tail, and I know it sounds stupid, but it isn't stupid! It's the way people look at things. Now, you could do a lot for yourself. Just the way you look and talk.

• Laura Reynolds : He was kind and gentle and lonely. We knew it wouldn't last. We sensed it. But he always said, "Why must the test of everything be it's durability?"

  Tom Lee : I'm sorry he was killed.

  Laura Reynolds : I'm sorry he was killed the *way* he was killed. In trying to prove he was a man, he died a boy.

• Ellie Martin : Wanna dance?

  Tom Lee : I don't dance.

  Ellie Martin : Well, I'm gonna teach you. It will sort of get us in the same county, huh?

• Ellie Martin : Aren't we the original hot and cold boy?

  Tom Lee : I'm sorry.

  Ellie Martin : Now listen, quit being so sorry or I'm gonna be sorry, too. Come on.

• Tom Lee : You've heard everything, I suppose.

  Laura Reynolds : Yes.

  Tom Lee : Everything?

  Laura Reynolds : Everything.