Alan Arkin plays John Singer – a deaf mute in a small Southern American town. His only friend is Sprio Antonapoulos (Chuck McCann), another deaf mute who is also mentally disabled and who is eventually shipped off to a state hospital.
In order to be nearer to his friend, Singer moves to another, larger town.
There he meets an anxious teenage girl called Mick (Sondra Locke in her feature film debut) and forms a close relationship with her. He also does his best to help semi-alcoholic drifter Jake Blount (Stacy Keach) and Dr Copeland (Percy Rodriguez), a cancer-ridden white-hating black doctor.
Just by being kind, Singer brings some light into the lives of his new friends. But there seems to be no one who can appreciate Singer’s own problems.
Helping others, he learns, has great but limited therapeutic effects. He fails nobody, but in the end, everybody fails him.
Arkin is good but does overdo some aspects of his role. Sondra Locke makes a most impressive screen debut.
Percy Rodriguez as the first proud, then humiliated doctor, is also good. Both Arkin and Locke earned Academy Award nominations for their performances.
The photography is unusually excellent – Selma, Alabama, is presented in all its Southern charm and splendour – and while the film is over two hours long, it never seems to drag.
The film was adapted from a 1940 novel by Carson McCullers.
John Singer
Alan Arkin Spiro Antonapoulos
Chuck McCann Spirmonedes
Peter Mamakos Beaudine
John O’Leary Margaret “Mick” Kelly
Sondra Locke Mr Kelly
Biff McGuire Mrs Kelly
Laurinda Barrett Bubber Kelly
Jackie Marlowe Ralph
Robbie Barnes Harry Minowitz
Wayne Smith Sucker
Richard Fingar Delores
Sherri Vise Spareribs
Gavin Paulin Dr Benedict Copeland
Percy Rodriguez Portia Copeland
Cicely Tyson Willie
Johnny Popwell Horace Oates Jr
Himself Jake Blount
Stacy Keach Brannon
Hubert Harper Dr Gordon
Don Swafford Nurse Bradford
Anna Lee Carroll Deputy Sheriff Ivor
Ronald A. Riner
Director
Robert Ellis Miller
Video
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Just by being kind, Singer brings some light into the lives of his new friends. But there seems to be no one who can appreciate Singer’s own problems.
