Tea and Sympathy

A drama set in a boarding school in the 1950s. Tom is not like the other students. He is interested in music rather than sport, plays classical guitar and prefers talking to the masters' wives. He is excluded for it and people begin talking about him. Nobody says anything to him directly and everyone implies the same thing. At the centre is a woman: Laura, the wife of one of the masters. She is the only person who is kind to him. The narrative essentially shows how the pressure works: his father, his friends and his teachers want him to learn to be a man, and describe what he must do about it. The source is Robert Anderson's play. It had drawn a large audience on Broadway, but the screen version had to be changed under the censorship rules; the final section in particular, and what becomes of the characters, differ from the play. Deborah Kerr and John Kerr had played their parts on stage as well. Vincente Minnelli directed. An important example for anyone who likes classical Hollywood drama and films about the social pressure of the period. To a viewer measuring by today, the film never names its subject, and the mark of censorship is visible throughout.