My thanks to Patrick Flynn for passing along this commentary from Turner Classic Movies about the making of the cinematic version of Robert Anderson's 1953 play, Tea and Sympathy, which a dozen of us (stout and true...:-) discussed tonight. As this excerpt explains, the screenwriters made many changes, which helps explain why the film didn't come out until 1956.
"The final version differed from the play in that it removed the suggestion that Tom or Bill held any latent homosexual tendencies, and it did not include a scene in which Tom swims in the nude with a gay music teacher [David Harris]. In addition, the film adds a flashback framing structure, in which Tom returns to a school reunion and, after reminiscing about the past, reads the letter from Laura expressing her remorse at having slept with him, an act that destroyed her marriage. The play ends with Laura's famous line, 'Years from now, when you talk about this--and you will--be kind.' In the film, the line ends the flashback."
2 comments:
(Posting on behalf of "Thoth")
"A Window on the 1950s" - And Today
This is not a candidate for performance these days because the world has changed, most of the developed world anyway. However, this play is an important historical document from which insights might be had, which relate to addressing our remaining social prejudices. Imo, exposure of roots of hostility is high on the list of lessons to be learned. For instance, what role does ambition play in conforming to and propagating hostile stereotypes in order to appear a "regular guy"? This was a good book club discussion book (although we never got as deep as I have just suggested). The role of self-censorship in theatre as well as official censorship in Hollywood (and news and social media?) in stymieing truth telling is also worth a look.
Five stars for this reason and the fact it's a clear, well structured portrayal of people and processes whose historicity I can personally vouch for.
What role does ambition play in conforming to and propagating hostile stereotypes in order to appear a "regular guy?" A good deal I would say, and both the play and movie version "Tea and Sympathy" show this in spades. The Fifties were a time of social as well as sexual conformity; think "The Organization Man" and "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit." When Tom Lee's father tells his son that people are judged by the company they keep, and that it's all important to be well-liked, he sounds for all the world like Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman." (Loman and Mr. Lee are a few years apart, and of different stations in life, but it's the same message.) In T&S, Bill the headmaster is beholden to Tom's father not just because of their old school friendship, but Mr. Lee is (I believe) a trustee of the school and a big wig. Placating him is all important. Had Tom Lee been a scholarship student, this might have been different story. For what it's worth, I think it's an error to believe that all men who are anti-gay are themselves secretly harboring gay feelings. Many, of course, but not all. A straight man in the snobbish environment of that prep school might have seen the "sissy" as lower on the totem pole and therefore ganging up on them as a way to maintain primacy. As odious as fellow classmate Ralph was (and ironically played by Alan Sues), there was little hint that he wasn't straight.
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