To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Brock Peters: Tom Robinson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Tom Robinson : Looks like she didn't have nobody to help her. I felt right sorry for her. She seemed...

  Prosecutor : You felt sorry for her? A white woman? You felt sorry for her?

• Tom Robinson : [testifying]  Well, I said I best be goin', I couldn't do nothin' for her, an' she said, oh, yes I could. An' I asked her what, and she said to jus' step on the chair yonder an' git that box down from on top of the chifforobe. So I done like she told me, and I was reachin' when the next thing I know she... grabbed me aroun' the legs.

  [a murmur erupts in the courthouse] 

  Tom Robinson : She scared me so bad I hopped down an' turned the chair over. That was the only thing, only furniture 'sturbed in the room, Mr. Finch, I swear, when I left it... Mr. Finch, I got down off the chair, and I turned around an' she sorta jumped on me. She hugged me aroun' the waist. She reached up an' kissed me on the face. She said she'd never kissed a grown man before an' she might as well kiss me. She says for me to kiss her back.

  Tom Robinson : [Tom shakes his head, re-living the ordeal with his eyes half-closed]  And I said, Miss Mayella, let me outta here, an' I tried to run. Mr. Ewell cussed at her from the window and said he's gonna kill her.

• Atticus Finch : Did you rape Mayella Ewell?

  Tom Robinson : I did not, sir.

  Atticus Finch : Did you harm her in any way?

  Tom Robinson : I did not.

• Tom Robinson : I can't use my left hand at all. I got it caught in a cotton gin when I was twelve years old. All my muscles were tore loose.